Nigeria bourse rises to N22.1trn on buying sentiments in GTB, Zenith, Stanbic IBTC

By Charles Abuede

• Investors gain N125bn

The Nigerian equities market continues to enjoy positive momentum as early financial results hitting the market are coming out mostly positive. Similarly, gains across the banking stocks earned market investors N125 billion on Thursday. At the close of trade, gains by Stanbic IBTC (+5.9%), Zenith Bank (+3.0%) and GTBank (+2.4%) pushed the NSE-ASI index higher by 57 basis points to close at 42,169.41 points. Consequently, the market year to date return improved to 4.7 per cent while market capitalisation advanced N124.9 billion to settle at N22.06 trillion from N21.93 trillion posted the previous day.

Also, the market activity level was mixed as volume traded rose 2.2 per cent to 555.3 million units while value traded dipped 21.3 per cent to N5.8 billion. The most traded stocks by volume were Transnational Corporation (76.2m units), UBN (75.9m units) and Zenith Bank (35.2m units), while Zenith Bank (N936.8m), Lafarge Plc (N726.7m) and GTBank (N708.7m) led by value.

There was a mixed sectoral performance across market sectors on the day as 3 indicators advanced, 2 lost and the AFR-ICT index closed flat. Leading the gainers was the banking index which up ticked by 2.1 per cent following buying interest in Stanbic IBTC (+5.9%), Zenith Bank (+3.0%) and GTBank (+2.4%). In the same way, price upticks in Nigerian Breweries (+2.4%), Dangote Sugar (+1.2%) and Lafarge (+2.7%) pressed the consumer and industrial goods indices higher by 0.9 per cent and 0.2 per cent, respectively.

On the contrary, the oil & gas and insurance indices declined 1.8 per cent and 0.6 per cent, respectively due to sell-offs in Mobil Plc (-8.6%), Ardova Plc (-2.8%), NEM Insurance (-7.6%) and African Insurance (-7.7%).

While the sentiment of market investors as measured by market breadth destabilized to 1.2x from the 1.7x recorded the previous day as 27 stocks gained against 22 losers, Portland Paint (+10.0%), Julius Berger (+10.0%) and NPF Microfinance Bank (+9.7%) were the top gainers as Academy Press (-10.0%), Sovereign Insurance (-9.7%) and Court Ville (-9.1%) were the top losers.

NSE 30

Also, the NSE 30 Index increased by 0.80 per cent to close at 1,712.06 points as against 1,698.44 points on the previous day. Market turnover closed with a traded volume of 318.51 million units. Julius Berger and UBN were the key gainers, while 11 Plc (Mobil) and FCMB were the key losers on Thursday.

FX Trading

In the foreign exchange market trading on Thursday, the naira remained unchanged in the CBN official window and the Lagos street market with naira trading at N379 and N478 to a dollar respectively. At the I&E FX market, naira marginally depreciated by 0.02 per cent as the dollar was quoted at N394.33 as against the last close of N394.25 with most market participants maintaining bids at between N385.00 and N396 per dollar.

T-Bills Trading

In the Nigerian treasury bills market on Thursday, it closed on a negative note with average yield across the curve increasing by 50 basis points to close at 1.08 per cent from 0.58 per cent on Wednesday. Consequently, the average yields across the short term, medium and long term maturities broadened by 28 basis points, 30 basis points and 76 basis points apiece. Also, yields on 17 bills progressed as the maturity bill with the highest increase was the 14-oct-21 bill with an increase of 107 basis points. Also, yields on 2 bills stayed constant.

Furthermore, the average yield across the curve stayed unchanged at 1.58 per cent in the OMO bills market on Thursday as the average yields within the long term, medium and short term maturities stood at 0.54 per cent, 1.36 per cent and 2.40 per cent respectively.

Bond Trading

Elsewhere in the FGN bonds market, the average bond yield across the curve cleared lower by 8 basis points to close at 3.56 per cent from the previous day close of 3.64 per cent. Thus, bringing the market to a positive close as compression was seen across the short tenor of the curve by 15 basis points while the medium advanced by 27 basis points, the long tenor stayed unaltered. At the close of activities, the 27-JAN-2022 maturity bond was the best performer with a decrease in the yield of 86 basis points, while the 15-JUL-2021 maturity bond was the worst performer with an increase in yield of 54 basis points.