Nigerian bourse halts losing streak as Index up 1.21% Tuesday

The Nigerian equities market halted its losing streak on Tuesday as the benchmark index advanced by 1.21 per cent to close at 28,144.87 points, following bargain hunting across bellwether stocks –MTNN, DANGCEM and NESTLE. Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date losses moderated to 6.08 per cent and 10.45 per cent respectively.

However, the total volume of trades decreased by 52.69 to 135.18 million units, valued at NGN2.09 billion, and exchanged in 3,358 deals. GUARANTY was the most traded stock by value and volume at NGN15.65 billion and 453.43 million units respectively.

Gains were evident across all sectors, save for the Insurance (-0.18%) and Oil & Gas (-0.66%) sectors, while the Industrial Goods (+3.91%), Consumer Goods (+1.66%) and Banking (+0.46%) indices all closed positive.

Market sentiment, as measured by market breadth, was positive (1.40x) as 21 tickers recorded gains relative to 15 losers. On the gainers’ list, NEIMETH (+10.00%) and WAPIC (+9.92%) recorded the largest gains, while FO (-9.93%) and INTBREW (-9.80%) recorded the largest declines.

Analysts at Cordros Capital have this to say: “Our outlook for equities in the short to medium term remains conservative, in the absence of any catalysts to drive positive market returns”.

In the currency market, the naira depreciated by 0.08 per cent against the US dollar to NGN361.75/USD, at the I&E FX window but was flat at NGN360.00/USD at the parallel market.

In the money market and fixed income, the overnight lending rate contracted by 328 bps to 17.86%, amidst buoyant system liquidity.

Activities in the Treasury bills market were bearish, as the average yield expanded by 15bps to 10.62 per cent. Sell pressures were witnessed across the short (+37bps) and mid (+16bps) tenor segments, with the respective yields on the 93DTM (+121bps) and 100DTM (+63bps) instruments advancing in the day’s trading. On the flip side, demand for the 253DTM (-44bps) bill led to yield contraction at the long (-44bps) end of the curve.

Trading in the bond market was bullish, as the average yield declined by 13bps to close at 13.45 per cent. Demand for MAR-2024 (-79bps) bond led to yield contraction at the short (-13bps) end of the curve, while, sell-offs on the APR-2037 (+3bps) bond led to yield expansion at the long (+1bps) end of the curve.