Market sustains bullish trend as NSE ASI gains 1.03%
. FBNH highest gainer, Caverton worst loser
Following sustained demand across most sectors, the Nigerian equities market sustained its trend as ASI advanced by +1.03% in yesterday’s trading session to close the day at 42,604.40 points,
The Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns improved to -3.92% and 11.40% , respectively. Market breadth remained positive, with 28 gainers and 24 losers, led by the shares of FBNH with 8.23 per cent gain, and CAVERTON (-8.77%) respectively.
Total volume traded increased by 18.13% to 615.17 million units, valued at NGN6.28 billion, and exchanged in 5,904 deals.
The Thursday’s transaction showed that the Nigerian bourse recovered part of its previous losses as buy interest across most sectors intensified.
The Banking index with +1.31% sustained its bullish momentum, driven by interest in FBNH which gained 8.23% on its equity price.
The Industrial Goods index appreciated by 0.89%, Consumer Goods index grew by 0.83% whiles the Oil &Gas index also appreciated by 0.01per cent. However, the Insurance index closed flat.
Experts maintained that the growth may have been driven by relatively attractive stock prices, encouraging macroeconomic conditions, and investors taking position ahead of q4-17 earnings.
Going forward, market analyst said “we expect the market to trade sideways as investors continue to take positions in this earnings season.
Nonetheless, the Nigerian equities market may be affected by the sentiments in the global equities markets in the near term.
The analyst added, “Despite the sell-off we saw in the market previously, we believe this may present entry opportunities into our quality names for investors with a medium to longer term horizon”.
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Meanwhile, the USD/NGN remained flat at NGN363 in the parallel market, while it appreciated by 0.07% to NGN360.13 in the I&E FX window.
Total volume traded in the I&E FX window increased by 11.62% to USD169.16 million, exchanged within the range of NGN355 to NGN361.50.
Fixed income , money market
The overnight lending rate contracted further by 208 bps to 6.92%, as liquidity position improved following inflow of matured OMO bills worth NGN89.08 billion.
Activities turned bearish in the NTB market, as average yield expanded by 3 bps to 14.49%. Yields closed higher at the mid (+5 bps) and long (+7 bps) ends of the curve, while it declined at the short (-3 bps) segment, following selloffs of the 182DTM (+39 bps) and 203DTM (+25 bps) bills, and demand for the 63DTM (-62 bps) bill , respectively.
Meanwhile, at yesterday’s NTB auction, NGN6 billion, NGN30 billion, and NGN140 billion of the 91-day, 182-day, and 364-day bills were allotted.
The bills were 1.3x oversubscribed, with stop rate on the 91-day bill closing lower at 11.95% (previously 12.00%), while it was unchanged for the 182-day and 364-day bills at 13.65% and 13.70%, respectively.
Stories by Bonny Amadi
