Market reverses as NSE ASI gains 1.11%

The bearish run of the Nigerian equities market reversed on Wednesday as investors take new position for dividend payments in expectation of release of 2017 financial year results by listed companies.

The equities market rebounded after seven consecutive sessions of losses, with the ASI appreciating by 1.11% to 42,171.80 points, following bargain hunting.

Accordingly, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns improved to -4.90% and 10.27% respectively. The Banking index with +2.74 per cent growth led the new gaining spree following renewed interests in tier 1 and tier 2 stocks.

Zenith bank with 5.00 per cent and Skye bank’s 10.00 per cent growth lifted the NSE banking sector index growth. The Insurance with 1.29 per cent growth was driven by Wapic, Consumer Goods index 0.96% appreciation was boosted by DANGFLOUR which gained +4.97 per cent, while Industrial Goods index which gained 0.19% was driven by BERGER paint’s 4.76 gain.

However, the Oil & Gas (-0.29%) index closed negative, as the shares of FO (-1.75%) were sold.
Market breadth turned positive, with 25 gainers and 19 losers, led by SKYEBANK (+10.00%) and FIRSTALUM (-9.09%) respectively. Total volume traded increased by 10.67% to 520.74 million units, valued at NGN4.72 billion, and exchanged in 5,694 deals.

Meanwhile, experts maintained that investors’ appetite is expected to remain strong, as investors continue to hunt bargains and take position ahead of Q4-17 earnings, amidst generally improving macroeconomic conditions.

The USD/NGN remained flat at NGN363 in the parallel market, while it weakened by 0.04% to NGN360.37 in the I&E FX window. Total volume traded in the I&E FX window increased by 36.5% to USD151.55 million, exchanged within the range of NGN358 to NGN361.50.

On the fixed income market, the overnight lending rate dropped by 633 bps to 9.00%, following anticipation of tomorrow’s inflow via maturing OMO bills worth NGN89.08 billion.

Accordingly, activities turned bullish in the NTB market, as average yield declined by 3 bps to 14.46%. Yields contracted across all ends of the curve – short (-4 bps), mid (-1 bp), and long (-5 bps) – driven by interests in the 92DTM (-58 bps), 183DTM (-11 bps), and 235DTM (-35bps) bills respectively. At the time of writing, the result of today’s auction was unavailable.

Conversely, investors were downbeat in the bond market, with average yield inching higher by 2 bps to 13.78%. Yields closed higher at the short (+8 bps), mid (+2 bps), and long (+1 bp) ends of the curve, owing to selloffs of the JUN-2019 (+8 bps), JUL-2021 (+4 bps), and MAR-2024 (+12 bps) bonds respectively.