Nigeria: Positive performance persists in the local bourse, NGX ASI gains 112bps

The Nigerian equities market closed in green at the end of yesterday’s session as the benchmark index improved by 1.12% to close at 43,730.55 points.

This was mainly due to buy pressures in bellwether stocks such as ARDOVA (+7.38%) and WAPCO (+3.46%). Consequently, the YTD return improved to 8.59% as market capitalization increased by ₦643.13 billion to close at ₦22.82trillion.

The sectoral performance significantly strengthened as four of the five indices under coverage improved while the Insurance index, the only loser, declined by 0.12% on REGALINS (-6.82%). Both Industrial and Consumer Goods indices, the biggest gainers, increased by 0.21% on WAPCO (+3.46%) and DANGSUGAR (2.40%). The Oil & Gas and Banking indices followed suit, rising by 0.12% and 0.07% on ARDOVA (+7.38%) and ACCESS (+0.53%) respectively.

Investor sentiment strengthened in today’s trading session, as market breadth increased to 1.50x from 0.69x. This was illustrated by the advance of 24 stocks, led by ABCTRANS (+10.00%) and FTNCOCOA (+10.00%) and the decline of 16 stocks, led by BERGER (-9.52%) and CAVERTON (-9.09%). Activity level weakened as total volume and value decreased by 36.72% and 31.14% as investors exchanged about 280.71 million units of shares worth over ₦3.48 billion.

“We expect bullish momentum to persist in the next trading session as the equities market still presents decent opportunities for investors chasing positive real return on investments.”

Fixed Income

There was mixed sentiment across the bond yield curve as 2 of the 4 bond yields under coverage closed lower while the yields on the FGN-JAN-2026 and FGN-JUL-2030 bond papers closed flat at 11.48% and 11.90% respectively. Both yields on the FGN-APR-2023 and FGN-APR-2024 bond papers increased by 51bps and 2bps respectively.

Treasury bill yields for the 91, 182 and 364-day papers closed flat at 3.91%, 4.81% and 7.14% respectively.

“We expect a further decline in yields in the next trading session on the back of huge demand from investors and the deliberate efforts of the DMO to reduce borrowing costs.”

MARKET SNAPSHOT

• Positive Performance Persists in the Local Bourse, NGX ASI Gains 112bps
• Mixed Sentiment across the Bond Yield Curve
• Negative Sentiment in Global Stocks
• Positive Performance in the Commodities Market
• Positive Performance in African Stocks