Bears tighten grip as equities shed fresh N28bn, but treasury bills bullish

By Omobayo Azeez

The tone and mood at the Nigerian equities market have remained unchanged as bears maintained a firm grip on share trading Tuesday posting the fourth straight session of losses that resulted in N28 billion being cut from market capitalisation at the close of trading.

The loss of the day followed investors’ sell-offs in MTNN, DANGSUGAR and UBA. Thus, the month-to-date and year-to-date returns worsened to -2.97 per cent and -14.70 per cent respectively.

Consequently, the Nigerian Stock Exchange All Share Index (NSEASI) shed 56.49 points and market capitalization lost N28 billion to close at 26,809.92 basis points and N13.051 trillion respectively.

Although, the total volume of trades increased by 22.56 per cent to 185.945 million units, valued at N2.548 billion and exchanged hands in 3,083 deals. ZENITHBANK was the most traded stock by volume and value at 60.92 million units and N1.10 billion respectively.

All sectoral indices closed in the green, with the exception of the consumer goods index which declined by 0.09 per cent, while the oil and gas (+1.04 per cent), industrial goods (+0.08 per cent), insurance (+0.06 per cent) and the banking (+0.05 per cent) indices all recorded gains.

Meanwhile, market sentiment, as measured by market breadth, was negative with the emergence of 14 declining stocks against 12 tickers.

Mobil led other gainers with N7.90 gain to close at N147.90; NASCON share gained N1.35 to close at N14.85 and Forte Oil, Guaranty and Afriprud gained N0.90, N0.15 and N0.13 to close at N15.70, N26.70 and N4 per share respectively.

On the flip side, MTN Nigeria lost N1.50 to close at N128.50; Guinness shed N0.40 from its share price to close at N32.50 while Dangote Sugar declined by N0.30 to close at N10.20 per share. Other losers include Dangote Flour shed N0.15 and Champion lost N0.10 to close at N22.30 and N1.04 per share respectively.

Meanwhile, the naira traded flat against the US dollar at N360.00 to $1 in the parallel market, while it depreciated by 0.02 per cent to N362.45/$1 at the importer and Exporter foreign exchange window (I&E FX).

In the money and fixed income market, the overnight lending rate eased by 100 bps to 3.79 per cent, as the system remains relatively liquid in the absence of any significant outflow.

Activities in the treasury bills market remained bullish, as the average yield declined by 23bps to 12.80 per cent. Yields contracted across the short (-30bps), mid (-10bps) and long (-28bps) segments of the curve, following buying interest in the 86DTM (-99bps), 135DTM (-44bps) and 282DTM (-68bps) bills, respectively.

Trading in the treasury bonds market was also bullish, as average yield dipped by 6bps to 12.80 per cent. Yields contracted across the short (-10bps), mid (-1bp) and long (-7bps) segments of the curve, following demand for FEB-2020 (-55bps), FEB-2028 (-2bps) and APR-2037 (-10bps) bonds, respectively.