The bulls continued to dominate equities markets in Nigeria on Thursday cumulating in gains for investors at both the NGX and NASD OTC Exchange.
At the NGX, renewed expression of interest in the shares of industrial heavy weight, DANGCEM (+1.85%) alongside sustained interest in Tier-1 banking ticker, GTCO (+0.74%) and ACCESSCORP (+1.16) outweighed losses in HONYFLOUR (-2.75%), NB (-5.67%), INTBREW (-1.84%) to close the market in the positive terrain.
As a result, the NGX benchmark index, ASI increased by 35 basis points or 0.35% to 109,231.96 points up from 108,849.83 posted on Wednesday.
Accordingly, the market capitalisation rose to N68.65 trillion as investors gained N240.15 billion while the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns improved to +3.4% and +6.1%, respectively.
The total volume of trades declined by 5.7% to 554.07 million units, valued at NGN68.65 billion, and exchanged in 16,704 deals. FIDELITYBK was the most traded stock by volume at 69.76 million units, while GTCO was the most traded stock by value at NGN3.10 billion.
Analysing by sectors, the Banking (+1.0%), Industrial Goods (+1.0%) and Insurance (+0.3%) indices advanced while Oil & Gas (-1.4%) and Consumer Goods (-1.3%) indices declined.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive (1.8x), as 37 tickers gained relative to 21 losers. CHELLARAM (+10.0%) and BETAGLAS (+10.0) led the gainers, while ABBEYBDS (-10.0%) and LIVESTOCK (-9.8%) recorded the most significant losses of the day.
NASD OTC Exchange
At the unlisted equities market, The NASD OTC Exchange equally sustained its upward trend on Thursday as both the benchmark index, the NSI and market capitalisation gained 84 basis points. The NSI closed at 3,320.16 points up from 3,292.36 points recorded on Wednesday.
Similarly, trade volume also increased by 58.26% to 346,266 units, while total value traded edged higher by 4.85% to N882.83 million, across 16 deals.
However, a 40.74% decrease was recorded in trade count, suggesting weak liquidity and sentiment in the market.
Overall, three (3) gainers and one loser was recorded at the close of the trading session.
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate increased by 5bps to 27.0% in the absence of any significant funding pressures on the system.
The Treasury bills secondary market was bullish, as the average yield contracted by 3bps to 20.9%.
Across the curve, the average yield increased at the short (+1bp) end driven by the sell offs of the 91DTM (+14bps) bill, while it contracted at the mid (-1bp) and long (-6bps) segments, following demand for the 182DTM (-91bps) and 350DTM (-6bps) bills, respectively. Similarly, the average yield contracted by 2bps to 26.8% in the OMO segment.
The FGN bond secondary market was bullish as the average yield contracted by 3bps to 18.7%.
Across the benchmark curve, the average yield contracted at the short (-11bps) end, driven by buying interest in the JAN-2026 (-55bps) bond, but was unchanged at the mid and long segments.