The Nigerian Stock Exchange(NSE) All-Share Index advanced by 0.43 per cent on Thursday as 15 stock recorded gains in the course of trading. The positive close at the Nigerian equities market brings the year-to-date return to 4.91 per cent negative.
The volume of transactions declined by 2.75 per cent; market turnover advanced by 1.04 per cent; while a total of 19 stocks declined. A total of 155.591 million shares worth N1.759bn were traded in 2,648 deals.
The NSE market capitalisation appreciated to N9.355tn from N9.315tn, while the ASI closed at 27,236.78 basis points from 27,120.39 basis points.
Total Nigeria Plc topped the gainers’ list following a 10.25 per cent increase in share price. Other top gainers were Airline Services and Logistics Plc, which recorded a 10 per cent gain; Cadbury Nigeria Plc, which appreciated by 9.43 per cent; Lafarge Africa Plc, which rose by 9.23 per cent and Livestock Feeds Plc, which rose by 6.41 per cent.
On the other hand, May and Baker Nigeria Plc, Africa Prudential Registrars Plc, UAC Property Development Company Plc and Forte Oil Plc recorded 8.89 per cent, five per cent, 4.99 per cent and 4.90 per cent loss, respectively, at the close of trade to become the top losers.
Analysts at Meristem Securities Limited commented on the state of the market, saying, “We attribute the day’s market performance to investor’s reactions to the released positive Q3 2016 scorecards.
“However, given the magnitude of losses recorded at the beginning of the week, we expect the market to record a marginal loss week-on-week.”
On the other hand, in line with the trend seen since the start of the week, the Central Bank of Nigeria held an Open Market Option auction with N20bn on offer on each of the 203-day and 364-day bills.
The apex bank eventually sold N17.8bn and N76.3bn on the 203-day and 364-day bills at respective stop rates of 18 per cent and 18.5bper cent (effective yields: 20 per cent and 22.69 per cent).
Despite this, the interbank call rate moderated 167 basis points to 8.83 per cent supported by liquidity from maturity.
At the foreign exchange interbank market, the naira appreciated by N1.78 against the dollar to settle at N305 at the spot market whilst the one year forward rate remained unchanged at N348.14.
Fixed income markets turned mixed as investors cherry-picked across the curve. Yields in the Treasury bills market moderated 6bps on average with the largest declines seen at the short end of the space – the 49 day-to-maturity and 98DTM bills retreating to 15.56 per cent and 16.38 per cent even as most long-dated bills recorded advances.
Similarly, the bond market traded mixed amidst a slightly tepid trading session. Buying momentum was concentrated on short-dated bonds such as the 15.54 per cent FGN February 2020, which shed eight basis points to close at 14.91 per cent with investor appetite fading further down the curve as the 12.50 per cent FGN January 2026 bond advanced four basis points to 15.38 per cent.
