TUE. 28 MARCH 2023-theGBJournal | The bears continued to dominate the local bourse as the benchmark index gave up 0.47% to close at 53,498.27 points.
The market’s weak performance was driven primarily by selloff in index heavyweight, DANGCEM (-4.17%) offsetting gains in BUAFOODS (+3.03%). As a result, the year-to-date (YTD) return fell to 4.38%, while the market capitalization shed N137.55bn to close at N29.14trn.
Analysis of today’s market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 52.72%.
A total of 202.85m shares valued at N2.05bn were exchanged in 3,071 deals. TRANSCORP (+4.48%) led the volume chart with 61.49m units traded, while GTCO (+0.00%) led the value chart in deals worth N291.14m.
Market breadth closed positive at a 2.14-to-1 ratio with advancing issues outnumbering declining ones. PZ (+9.62%) topped fourteen (14) others on the leader’s log, while CHAMS (-8.00%) led six (6) others on the laggard’s table.
Last week, the NGX All-Share Index lost 0.04% to settle at 54,892.53 points, underscoring the bearish sentiments since the February Presidential Election. Consequently, its year-to-date return slipped to 7.11%. International Breweries (-6.45%), Cadbury Nigeria (-5.83%) and Stanbic IBTC (-5.76%) closed negative while Geregu Power (+6.25%), Oando (+3.66%) and Lafarge Africa (+3.39%) closed positive.
Performances across the NGX sub-indices were broadly negative as the NGX Consumer Goods (-0.74%) sub-index led the losers, followed by NGX Insurance (-0.53%), NGX Industrial Goods (-0.49%) and NGX-30 (-0.16%) sub-indices.
The NGX Oil & Gas (+0.00%) sub-index closed flat while the NGX Banking (+0.93%) and NGX Pension (+0.16%) sub-index closed positive.
Dividend Information
| Company | Dividend (Bonus) | Closure Date | Payment Date |
| BUACEMENT | N2.80 (final) | 11-Aug-23 | 24-Aug-23 |
| STANBIC | N2.00 (final) | 12-Apr-23 | 26-May-23 |
| NESTLE | N36.50 (final) | 28-Apr-23 | 18-May-23 |
| SEPLAT | $0.075 (final) | 19-Apr-23 | 10-May-23 |
| WAPCO | N2.00 (final) | 11-Apr-23 | 28-Apr-23 |
| NB | N1.03 (final) | 17-Mar-23 | 26-Apr-23 |
| DANGCEM | N20.00 (final) | 31-Mar-23 | 24-Apr-23 |
| MTNN | N10.00 (final) | 28-Mar-23 | 20-Apr-23 |
The local currency also depreciated by 0.1% to NGN461.75/USD at the I&E window reflecting losses from the previous week when the exchange rate at the Investors and Exporters Window (I&E Window) lost 0.11% to close at N461.33/US$1.
The overnight lending rate expanded by 38bps to 18.0%, as system liquidity remained strained.
The Treasury bills secondary market was bearish, as the average yield expanded by 4bps to 5.8%. Across the curve, the average yield was flat at the short and mid segments but expanded at the long (+8bps) end following sell-offs of the 345DTM (+148bps) bill. Elsewhere, the average yield remained at 4.0% in the OMO segment.
Similarly, the Treasury bond secondary market traded with bearish sentiments, as the average yield expanded by 13bps to 13.0%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield expanded at the short (+24bps) and long (+8bps) ends following profit-taking on the MAR-2024 (+124bps) and MAR-2050 (+47bps) bonds, respectively. The average yield was flat at the mid segment.
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