Nigerian bourse closes positive as Index up 0.85% Tuesday

The Nigerian equities market closed on a positive note on Tuesday as the benchmark index increased by 0.85 per cent, to 29,746.24 points, driven by gains in bellwether banking and consumer goods stocks.

Thus, the Month-to-Date and the Year-to-Date losses moderated to -4.17 per cent and -5.36 percent respectively.

On sectoral performance, most sectoral indices such as Banking (+1.66%), Consumer goods (+1.56%), Insurance (+0.65%), and Industrial (+0.01%) closed positive, while the Oil & Gas index (-0.13%) closed in red.

Notable stocks include GUARANTY (+1.42%), NESTLE (+3.31%), CUSTODIAN (+2.42%) BERGER (+2.21%) and OANDO (-1.03%).

Market breadth was positive, with 21 gainers and 10 losers, led by CHAMS (+10.00%) and JOHNHOLT (-9.62%) shares, respectively. Total volume of trades increased by 43.61% to 321.36 million units, valued at NGN4.66 billion, and exchanged in 2,979 deals.

“In the absence of a positive catalyst, we guide investors to trade cautiously in the short term. However, stable macroeconomic fundamentals and compelling valuation remain supportive of recovery in the mid-to-long term”, analysts at Cordros Capital said.

In the currency market, the USD/NGN appreciated by 0.02 to NGN360.23 in the I&E FX window, but closed flat at NGN360.00 at the parallel market.

Total turnover in the IEW decreased significantly by 73.31 per cent to USD111.79 million, with trades consummated within the NGN356.00-NGN362.00/USD band.

In the money market & fixed income market, the overnight lending rate crashed 2,550 bps to close at 17.43 per cent as market players were able to access liquidity from the CBNs SLF window.

Activities in the treasury bills market were mixed, albeit with a bearish tilt, as average yield widened by 2bps to close at 13.41 per cent. Selloffs of the 65DTM (+65 bps) bill led to yield expansion at the short (+10 bps) end of the curve.

On the flip side, yield contracted at the mid (-1 bp) segment owing to demand for the 107DTM (-96 bps) bill. Yield at the long end of the curve was flat. At the NTB auction scheduled for tomorrow, the CBN will offer NGN58.49 billion – NGN5.85 billion of the 91-day, NGN29.25 billion of the 182-day, and NGN23.40 billion of the 364-day – worth of bills to the market.

Trading in the bond market was mixed, as average yield shed a marginal 1 bp to close at 14.07 per cent. Demand was evident at the short (-6 bps) and long (-4 bps) end of the curve, with respective yields on the JUL-2021 (-20 bps) and MAR-2036 (-14 bps) bills contracting. Conversely, a selloff of the FEB-2028 (+15 bps) bond led to yield expansion at the mid (+6 bps) segment.