By Charles Abuede
The Nigerian equity market closed on a mildly negative note on Thursday as the All Share Index marginally decreased by 0.01 per cent to close at 30,738.92 points. This was due to losses in Union bank (-3.6%), International Breweries (-5.8%) and Flour Mills (-2.8%). As a result, market investors lost N6.3 billion as the market capitalisation of equities on the NSE fell to N16.062 trillion from N16.068 trillion recorded the previous day while the year to date return settled at 14.5 per cent. Though, it is still being projected that the market will end in the green as a result of bargain hunting.
On the other hand, activity level advanced as volume and value traded rose 50.2 per cent and 113.9 per cent to 430.1 million units and N6.6 billion respectively. The most traded stocks by volume were FBN Holdings (61.5 million units), BUA Cement (50.3 million units) and Access Bank (46.2 million units) while BUA Cement (N2.3 billion), Zenith Bank (N787.4 million) and Nigerian Breweries (N684.9 million) led by value.
Mixed sector performance
The market performance across sectors was mixed as two indices gained, two lost, while the industrial goods and AFR-ICT indices closed flat. The banking and oil & gas indices rose 6 basis points and 4 basis points respectively due to gains in Guaranty Trust Bank (+0.6%), United Bank for Africa (+1.3%) and OANDO (+0.4%). Conversely, the insurance and consumer goods indices dipped 0.7 per cent and 0.5 per cent respectively following sell-offs in Linkage Assurance (-8.9%), CHI plc (-8.1%), International Breweries (-5.8%) and Flour Mills (2.8%).
Investor sentiment unchanged
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) was unchanged at 1.1x as 18 stocks gained against the 17 that lost. Transnational Corporation (+9.9%), Learn Africa (+9.5%) and African Prudential (+9.3%) were top gainers while Linkage Assurance (-8.9%), ABC Transportation (-8.8%) and CHI Plc (-8.1%) led the laggards.
The NSE 30
The NSE 30 Index marginally decreased by 0.02 per cent to close at 1,328.86 points as against 1,329.11 points on the previous day. Market turnover closed with a traded volume of 321.55 million units. Unilever and FBN Holdings were the key gainers, while International Breweries and UBN were the key losers.
Money market
The Nigerian naira weakened by N1 to trade at N465 to a dollar on the street market on Thursday. The FX rate continues to trade within a narrow band in the absence of adequate FX supply by the CBN; while at the I&E FX market, naira remained stable at N386 per dollar, as most participants maintained bids between the range of N384 and N386 per dollar and at the CBN official rate, it traded for N379 to a dollar.
Treasury Bills
Nigeria Treasury Bills secondary market closed on a positive note, with the average yield across the curve declining by 28 basis points to close at 0.50 per cent from 0.78 per cent on the previous day. Average yields across medium-term and long-term maturities compressed by 15 bps and 46 bps, respectively, due to maximum buying interest witnessed in the NTB 30-Sep-21 (-254 bps), NTB 14-Oct-21 (-177 bps), and NTB 28-Oct-21 (-79 bps) maturity bills. However, the average yield across short-term maturities remained unchanged at 0.37 per cent.
While on the OMO bills market, buying interest was seen across short-term, medium-term, and long-term maturities with average yields falling by 5 basis points, 25 basis points, and 215 basis points, respectively to see the average yield across the curve decline by 74 basis points to close at 0.21 per cent as against the last close of 0.95 per cent. The highest yield decline was seen in the 19-Oct-21 maturity bill, which fell by 880 basis points, while the highest yield increase was witnessed in the 17-Nov-20 maturity bill, which rose by 3 basis points.
Bond Market
The FGN bond market closed in the green on Thursday as the average bond yield across the curve cleared lower by 7 basis points to close at 1.82 per cent from 1.89 per cent on the previous day. Also, the average yields across short tenor and medium tenor of the curve compressed by 9 basis points and 5 basis points, respectively, while the average yield across long tenor of the curve remained unchanged.
Though, the 14-MAR-2024 maturity bond was the best performer with a decline in yield of 39 basis points, while the 18-JUL-2034 maturity bond was the worst performer with an increase in yield of 4 basis points.
