WED, MAR 20 2024-theGBJournal| Nigerian Stocks took a turn lower Wednesday as bears continues its feasting frenzy in the market.
At the same time bonds yield stayed bearish while treasury bills stayed bullish with yield expanding for the third consecutive day in the week.
The NGX benchmark index finished the day 0.3% lower to close at 104,256.81 points following sell off in FBNH stocks (-9.9%).
Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date gains moderated to +4.3% and +39.4%, respectively.
The total volume traded declined by 2.7% to 298.65 million units, valued at NGN6.84 billion, and exchanged in 8,248 deals. FBNH remained the most traded stock by volume and value at 38.76 million units and NGN1.56 billion, respectively.
Performance across the sectors was mixed, as the Insurance (+2.1%), Oil & Gas (+0.2%) and Consumer Goods (+0.1%) indices posted gains while the Banking (-1.8%) index declined. Meanwhile, the Industrial Goods index closed flat.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive (1.3x), as 28 tickers gained relative to 22 losers. NEM (+10.0%) and CWG (+10.0%) topped the gainers’ list, while NSLTECH (-10.0%) and FBNH (-9.9%) recorded the highest losses of the day.
At the Forex market, the local currency continued its positive momentum against the US dollar as the naira appreciated by 4.6% to N1,492.61/USD at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM).
Meanwhile, the overnight lending rate contracted by 217bps to 26.6%, despite debits for the March 2024 FGN bond PMA (N588.87 billion).
Trading in the Treasury bills secondary market was bullish, as the average yield declined by 114bps to 17.3%.
Across the curve, the average yield contracted at the short (-24bps), mid (-114bps) and long (-169bps) segments following interest in the 36DTM (-52bps), 127DTM (-180bps) and 323DTM (-342bps) bills, respectively. Likewise, the average yield pared by 1bp to 18.8% in the OMO segment.
Sentiments in the FGN bond secondary market were bearish, as the average yield expanded by 29bps to 18.8%.
Across the benchmark curve, the average yield advanced at the short (+68bps), mid (+37bps) and long (+6bps) segments due to profit-taking activities on the APR-2029 (+100bps), APR-2032 (+116bps) and JUN-2053 (+60bps) bonds, respectively.
X-@theGBJournal|Facebook-the Government and Business Journal|email:gbj@govbusinessjournal.com|govandbusinessj@gmail.com
