Nigerian Equities Market Nosedives as Investors Expect High Inflation Numbers, NGX-ASI Down 0.12%

Nigerian Equities Market closed bearish on Thursday as investors anticipates high inflation numbers. The NGX All-Share Index decline 12bps to close at 67,335.30 points from 67,414.40 points. The negative outing was due to profit-taking some blue-chip stocks such as NESTLE (-2.38%), GTB (-2.96%), FBNH (-1.67), and ZENITH (-2.51). Consequently, YTD returns declined marginally to closed at 31.38% from 31.54%. Market Capitalization closed at N36.85 trillion from N36.90 trillion.

UBA recorded 301.025 million shares worth N4.89 billion to top most traded stocks on Thursday. It was seconded by STERLINGNG which traded over 82.476 million shares, worth N313.285 million. The third place was occupied by CHIPLC which traded 46.031 million shares worth N37.80 million.

Investors’ sentiment weakened as the market breadth closed at 1.04x from 1.48x. This was illustrated by depreciation in the share prices of 25 stocks, led by ETRANZACT

(-10.00%) and IKEJAHOTEL (-9.84%), and appreciation in share prices of 26 stocks, led by CHELLARAM (10.00%) and LEARNAFRCA (9.97%).

Investors exchanged about 788.54 million shares worth N14.17 billion in 8,810 deals, higher than 569.63 million shares worth N8.70 billion in 8,404 deals that exchanged hands in the previous day.

We expect the Equities Market to close the month of September in the positive territory as investors’ confidence continue to improve.

The Fixed Income Market

The Fixed Income Market closed flat. The FGN 2 year, 3 year, 5 year and 10 year closed at 11.29%, 13.00%, 13.90%, and 14.85% respectively.

The yields on the 182 day paper and 364 day paper closed at 4.46% and 6.80% respectively.

We expect yield to rise on the longer end of the curve as a result of rising rates, and reduce on the shorter end as maturity period draws closer.