Nigerian bourse opens the week negative as Index down 0.31% Monday

The Nigeria’s equities market closed the first trading session of the week on a negative note as the benchmark index declined by 0.31 per cent to close at 31,042.32 points, driven by sell-off across major counters.

Thus, the Month-to-Date and the Year-to-Date losses increased to 2.13 per cent and 1.24 per cent, respectively.

On sectoral breakdown, all sector indices closed negative, with the Industrial Goods (-1.64%) index leading the pack, followed closely by the Insurance (-0.97%), Banking (-0.78%), Oil & Gas (-0.74%), and Consumer Goods (-0.20%) indices, respectively. Notable stocks include DANGCEM (-0.63%), NEM (-6.00%), ZENITHBANK (-2.49%), OANDO (-3.45%), and NASCON (-5.00%).

Market breadth was negative, with 19 losers and 12 gainers, led by ACADEMY (-8.33%) and REDSTAREX (+10.00%) shares, respectively. Total volume of trades decreased by 27.03 per cent to 168.72 million units, valued at NGN3.75 billion, and exchanged in 3,048 deals.

‘ We reiterate our negative outlook for the equities market in the short-to-medium term, amidst absence of a positive market trigger. However, positive macroeconomic fundamentals remain supportive of recovery in the long term’, analysts at Cordros Capital said.

The USD/NGN appreciated slightly by 0.01 per cent to NGN360.39 in the I&E FX window, but closed flat at NGN360.00 at the parallel market in the currency market. Total turnover in the IEW decreased by 2.80% to USD224.85 million, with trades consummated within the NGN357.00-NGN361.50/USD band.

In the fixed income and money market, the overnight lending rate rose 960 bps to 24.43 per cent, from 14.83 per cent last Friday, as banks provisioned for the CBN’s wholesale FX intervention.

The treasury bills market saw a reversal in the recent bearish sentiments, as average yield dipped by 6 bps to 13.28 per cent.

Buy sentiment was evident across all segments, with the short (-7 bps), mid (-3 bps), and long (-7 bps) segments recording respective contraction. Notable bills include the 80DTM (-38 bps), 157DTM (-17 bps), and 318DTM (-59 bps) bills.

Sentiments were slightly bullish in bond market, as average yield contracted by 3 bps to 14.15%. The short (-5 bps), and mid (-3 bps) segments recorded demand, with respective yields on the JUN-2019 (-24 bps) and FEB-2028 (-8 bps) bonds recording the largest contractions. Yield at the long end of the curve was flat.