Dangote Cement boosts Nigerian bourse as market closes Thursday 0.70% up

Proceedings in the Nigerian equities market turned positive on Thursday as the benchmark index notched higher by 0.70 per cent to 30,822.33 points, following the late interest in DANGCEM.

Against the foregoing, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date losses tapered to 0.23% and 19.46%, respectively.

On sectoral performance, losses in the Banking (-1.61%), and Consumer Goods (-0.25%) indices were offset by gains across the Industrial (+1.14%), Insurance (+2.63%) and Oil and Gas (+3.09%) indices.

The notable stocks include ACCESS (-6.33%), NESTLE (-0.68%), DANGCEM (+2.15%), NEM (+10.00%), and SEPLAT (+6.81%), respectively.

Market breadth was positive with 22 gainers and 17 losers, led by NEM (+10.00%) and UNIONDAC (-7.69%) stocks respectively.

Total volume of trades expanded by 171.6 per cent to 545.98 million units, valued at NGN4.09 billion, and exchanged in 3,224 deals.

Despite today’s gain, we maintain our negative outlook for the equities market in the short to medium term, amidst political concerns ahead of the 2019 elections, and the absence of a positive market trigger.

However, positive macroeconomic fundamentals remain supportive of recovery in the long term.

In the currency market, the USD/NGN strengthened by 0.10 per cent to NGN364.57 in the I&E FX window, while it remained flat at NGN365 in the parallel market.

Total turnover in the IEW increased by 58.4 per cent to USD264.46 million, with trades consummated within the NGN358.00-366.00/USD band.

Also, in the  Fixed Income and Money Market,the overnight lending rate eased 824 bps to 14.83 per cent, following inflows from matured OMO and treasury bills worth NGN472.42 billion and NGN25.40 billion respectively.

The CBN mopped up NGN471.24 billion via OMO auction, selling NGN6.62 billion of the 98DTM, NGN16.72 billion of the 189DTM and NGN447.9 billion of the 364DTM, at respective stop rates of 11.90 per cent, 13.50 per cent and 15.00 per cent.

In the Treasury Bill, the NTB secondary market was bullish, as average yield moderated by 9 bps to 15.56. Yields at the short (-3 bps), mid (-9 bps) and long (-13 bps) segments contracted, on the back of demand for the 35DTM (-31 bps), 168DTM (-32 bps) and 224DTM (-49 bps) bills, respectively.

Proceedings in the bond market were also bullish, as yield fell by 7 bps, on average, to 15.44 per cent. Investor interest was high at the short (-3 bps) and mid (-15 bp) segments, with the JUN-2019 (-17 bps) and MAR-2027 (-22 bps) bonds recording respective contractions. Yield at the long end of the curve was flat.