Bears continue on Nigerian bourse as Index down 0.59% Wednesday

The Nigerian equities market closed the second trading session of the week on a negative note as the benchmark index declined by 0.59 per cent to 29,898.231 points, driven by a sell-off of some large-cap stocks

Thus, the Month-to-Date and the Year-to-Date losses increased to 3.68 per cent and 4.87 per cent, respectively.

On sectoral performance, the Oil & Gas (-3.61%), Consumer Goods (-1.10%), and Industrial Goods (-0.70%) indices recorded losses, while the Banking (+0.93%) and Insurance (-0.84%) indices closed in the green.

Notable stocks include SEPLAT (-4.39%), NESTLE (-1.90%), DANGCEM (-0.94%), ZENITHBANK (+2.15%) and AIICO (+5.63%), respectively.

Market breadth was positive, with 26 gainers and 14 losers, led by DANGFLOUR (+9.78%) and CONOIL (-9.57%), respectively.

Volume of trades decreased by 3.6 per cent to 304.86 million units, valued at NGN2.63 billion and exchanged in 3,902 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 foreign exchange market, the USD/NGN appreciated by 0.08 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 by 49.90 per cent to USD141.02 million, with trades consummated within the NGN350.00-NGN362.00/ USD band.

In the money and fixed income market, the overnight lending rate moderated by 563 bps to12.86 per cent, in the absence of any significant outflows.

Sentiments in the Treasury bills market were bullish, as average yield moderated by 4 bps to 13.16 per cent. Buy sentiment was evident at the mid (-9 bps) and long (-6 bps) segments, with yields on the 176DTM (-28 bps) and 239DTM (-35 bps) bills contracting, respectively.

Conversely, yield at the short (+9 bps) segment expanded, on the backdrop of a selloff of the 15DTM (+146 bps) bill.

Proceedings in the bond market were bullish, as yields fell by 6 bps, on average, to 14.15 per cent. Demand was evident across the short (-7 bps), mid (-3 bps) and long (-11 bps) segments of the curve, with respective yields on the JUN- 2019 (-30 bps) JUL-2030 (-7 bps) and APR-2037(-18 bps) bonds contracting.

At today’s primary auction, the DMO allotted NGN97.40 billion – NGN6.81 billion of the APR-2023 (re-opening), NGN37.43 billion of the APR-2029 (new-issue) and NGN53.16 billion of the APR-2049 (new-issue) – in bonds to investors, at respective stop rates of 14.50 per cent (vs. 13.50 per cent at the previous auction), 14.55 per cent, and 14.80 per cent, respectively.