(Greenwich Merchant Bank) Nigerian equities market closed with the NGX-ASI and market capitalisation appreciating by 1.35% to settle at 50,626.04 points and NGN27.30 trillion points respectively. Consequently, Year-to-Date increased to 18.52%.
Gains recorded could be attributed to some heavy weight equities like MTNN (7.45%), NESTLE (2.99%), ZENITHBANK (1.90%) and GTCO (1.75%).
Market activities was mixed as volume traded decreased by 26.63% (129.17 million units) while value traded increased by 25.63% (NGN2,861.55 million). FBNH had the highest volume traded while NESTLE closed the day with the highest value traded. Market breadth was bullish at 2.11x with nineteen (19) gainers and nine (9) laggers.
Performance across sectors was largely positive as the Banking sector (0.63%), Consumer Goods sector (1.13%) and Industrial sector (0.02%) recorded gains while Insurance sector (0.03%) declined and Oil & Gas sector remained unchanged.
Fixed Income Market
Activities were recorded in NT-bills and OMO market, as investors sentiments were largely positive with all benchmarked instruments declining across the curve. Therefore, average yield dropped by 20bps and 31bps to close at 7.49% and 9.55% respectively. In the NT-Bills market the highest decline recorded was the 8-Jun-23 instrument which declined by 38bps, whereas 7-Mar-23 recorded the highest decline of 40bps in the OMO market .
As well, bearish sentiment persisted in the bond market as average yield went up by 11bps to settle at 12.43% from 12.32%
System liquidity fell by 58.21% to close at NGN103.26 billion from NGN247.13billion recorded the previous day.
Consequently, the Open Buy Back and Overnight rate increased by 0.43% to close at 14.33% and 15.00%.
The Naira depreciated by NGN1.79/USD in the I&E Window to settle at NGN 430.67/USD from NGN428.88/USD.
Ifunanya Ikueze is an Engineer, Safety Professional, Writer, Investor, Entrepreneur and Educator.