MTN continues propelling bullish run as Index gains 2.88% Tuesday

The Nigerian equities market sustained its bullish run for the third consecutive session as the benchmark index gained 2.88 per cent on Tuesday, the largest gain since Dec. 24 — to 30, 218.14 points, driven by interest in MTNN and DANGCEM stocks.

Thus, the Month-to-Date return grew to 3.63 per cent while the Year-to-Date loss moderated to 3.86 per cent.

On sectoral performance, gains were evident across all sectors — save for the Consumer Goods (-0.33%) — as the Industrial Goods (+2.08%), Banking (+0.94%), Oil & Gas (+0.58%) and Insurance (+0.41%) indices closed positive. Notable stocks include DANGCEM (+3.93%), GUARANTY (+2.96%), FO (+8.81%), WAPIC (+2.56%), and UNILEVER (-3.13%).

Market breadth was positive, with 19 gainers and 16 losers, led by MTNN (+9.98%) and LIVESTOCK (-10.00%), respectively. Total volume of trades increased by 56.5per cent  to 335.60 million units, valued at NGN17.2 billion and exchanged in 4,453 deals.

“We expect the rally in the equities market to persist in the short term, following sustained interest in MTNN shares”, analysts at Cordros Capital said.

The USD/NGN appreciated by 0.08% to NGN361.50 in the I&E FX window, but closed flat at NGN361.00 at the parallel market. Total turnover in the IEW decreased by 64.61 per cent to USD138.41 million, with trades consummated within the NGN357.50-NGN361.50/USD band.

The overnight lending rate moderated by 43 bps to 5.29 per cent, in the money market & fixed income market in the absence of any significant outflows.

Proceedings in the treasury bills market were bullish, as average yield moderated by 11 bps to 11.98 per cent. Buy sentiment was spread across the short (-11 bps), mid (-25 bps) and long (-3 bps) segments of the curve with respective yields on the 17DTM (-65 bps), 94DTM (-161 bps), and 248DTM (-89 bps) contracting.

Activities in the bond market were bearish, as average yield widened by 5 bps to 13.87 per cent. Sell pressure was evident across the short (+7 bps), mid (+3 bps) and long (+4 bps) segments, as market players sold off the JUN-2019 (+23 bps), FEB-2028 (+12 bps) and APR-2037 (+7 bps) bonds, respectively.

At the FGN bond auction scheduled for tomorrow, the DMO plans to offer NGN100 billion – NGN35 billion of the APR-2023 (re-opening), NGN35 billion of the APR-2029 (re-opening), and NGN30 billion of the APR-2049 (re-opening) – in bonds to investors.