Nigerian stocks trade lower with benchmark index paring 0.34% w-o-w as global equities advance despite Catalan declaration

Nigerian equities Friday depreciated 0.15 percent to close benchmark index at 36,462.26 points as against 36,587.31 points recorded last week, which represents 0.34 percent depreciation week-on-week.

This is just as robust corporate earnings reports helped a broad advance in world equity markets despite the Catalan parliament’s declaration of independence from Spain. However, the euro held near a three-month low against the U.S. dollar Friday, undermined by the Catalan declaration.

On the Nigerian bourse, Friday’s performance, though an improvement on the 0.29 percent depreciation recorded previously, could not lift year-to-date gains from the 35.68 percent it currently stands.

Market capitalization at the close of trading settled at N12.62 trillion down 0.24 percent from the N12.59 trillion it stood last Friday.

Market turnover closed negative as volume moved down by 29.68 percent as against 7.15 percent uptick recorded in the previous session. FBNH, FCMB and DIAMONDBNK were the most active to boost market turnover. DANGCEM and FBNH topped market value list.

Market breadth also closed negative as CAVERTON led 24 gainers as against 25 losers topped by UACN at the end of today’s session- an unimproved performance when compared with previous outlook.

Top gainers include NESTLE (3.0%), GUARANTY TRUST (0.3%), BOCGAS (0.19%), UAC PROPERTIES (0.12%) and MANSARD (0.09%).

Top losers were TOTAL (-12.25%), NB (-3.0%), INTERBREW (-2.58%) FO (-2.01%) and UNILEVER (-1.22%).

VITAFOAM leads the list of active stocks that recorded impressive volume spike at the end of today’s session.

On the global front, the euro held near a three-month low against the U.S. dollar on Friday, undermined by the Catalan parliament’s declaration of independence from Spain, while robust corporate earnings reports helped a broad advance in world equity markets.

The Catalan declaration, made after a secret ballot, is now likely to be ruled illegal by Spain’s constitutional court.

“There’s no doubt that Catalonia, the issue has been weighing on the euro,” said Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial in New Jersey.

The euro had its worst day against the dollar in 16 months on Thursday after the European Central Bank said it would cut its bond purchases in half to 30 billion euros a month from January.

“That [the ECB meeting] was the seminal meeting for the euro for this week,” Krosby said. “And then if you couple that with stronger U.S. data, that helps keep the euro weaker.”

Stronger-than-expected U.S. third-quarter GDP data helped bolster the dollar. The U.S. economy grew at a three percent annual rate from July to September, showing resilience even as recent storms hurt consumer spending.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of major currencies, rose 0.45 percent, with the euro down 0.63 percent to $1.1577.

Gains in the dollar were pared after a Bloomberg report that said U.S. President Donald Trump was leaning toward Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell as the next U.S. central bank chairman.

U.S. Treasury note yields turned lower, following the Catalan news and Bloomberg report on Trump’s possible Fed chief pick.

Benchmark 10-year notes last rose 9/32 in price to yield 2.4228 percent, from 2.454 percent late on Thursday.

The 30-year bond last rose 16/32 in price to yield 2.9356 percent, from 2.961 percent late on Thursday.

Gold edged higher on Friday, reversing earlier losses after the Catalonian parliament’s independence declaration from Spain led investors to seek safety from political upheaval. Spot gold added 0.4 percent to $1,271.14 an ounce.