Nigerian Equities Market Slides 0.65% After Eid-ul-Maulid Holiday

Nigerian Equities Market open post-holiday session in the red as large-cap stocks declined. The NGX All-Share Index lost 0.65% to close at 66,448.63 points from 66,882.64 points. The negative performance was due profit-taking in some blue-chip stocks such as DANGSUGAR (-6.00%), UBA (-3.59%), GTCO (-0.72%), and ACCESSCORP (-0.32%). While YTD returns declined to 29.65% from 30.50%, Market Capitalization closed at N36.37 trillion.

ACCESSCORP recorded 45.877 million shares worth N710.626 billion to top most traded stocks on Thursday. It was seconded by ZENITHBANK which traded over 21.116 million shares worth N657.22 billion. The third place was occupied by UNITYBNK which traded 19.735 million shares worth N19.24 million.

Investors’ sentiment weakened as the market breadth closed at 0.62x. This was illustrated by depreciation in the share prices of 26 stocks, led by VITAFOAM (-9.92%) and FTNCOCOA (-9.88%), and appreciation in share prices of 16 stocks, led by RTBRISCOE (9.76%) and CWG (9.72%).

Investors exchanged about 273.80 million shares worth N3.41 billion in 6,826 deals compared with 408.20 million shares worth N5.44 in 7,707 deals in the last trading 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 mixed.  While the FGN Bond for 2 yaer and 3 years compressed -0.01% and -0.12% to closed at12.81 and 13.05% respectively. the FGN 5 year and 10 year closed at flat 14.12% and 14.80% respectively.

The yields on the 90 day paper, 182 day paper and 364 day paper closed at 3.61%,  4.96% and 7.17% 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.