Bearish sentiments resurfaced in the Nigerian equities market, reversing some gains made in the last three previous sessions.
The downward trend was powered by sell pressures on SEPLAT (-10.0%) OANDO. (-2.04), GTCO (-0.72%), ACCESSCORP (-0.45), FIRSTHOLDCO (-0.20%) alongside 19 others, compelling the NGX to close in the red.
Consequently, benchmark index, the ASI declined by 0.08% to 111,818.08 points, from 111,902.61 points reported on Wednesday.
Accordingly, investors lost N53.30 billion, as the market capitalisation declined to N70.51 trillion, while the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns moderated to +5.7% and +8.6%, respectively.
The total volume of trades increased by 8.7% to 556.45 million units, valued at NGN17.17 billion, and exchanged in 18,505 deals. UBA was the most traded stock by volume and value at 82.57 million units and NGN2.86 billion, respectively.
Analysing by sectors, the Consumer Goods (+0.9%) and Banking (+0.3%) indices advanced, while the Oil & Gas (-5.0%) and Insurance (-0.2%) indices declined.
The Industrial Goods index closed flat.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive (1.6x), as 39 tickers gained relative to 24 losers.
MBENEFIT (+10.0%) and UPL (+10.0%) led the gainers, while SEPLAT (-10.0%) and LEGENDINT (-10.0%) recorded the most significant losses of the day.
NASD OTC Exchange
However, the reverse was the case at the NASD OTC unlisted equities market as it closed positive.
The NASD Securities Index and the market capitalisation gained 0.43% to close at 3244.71 and N1.90 trillion respectively.
However, trade volume and value plummeted by 99.78% to 1.17 million and 99.80% to N9.05 million respectively, while the number of deals also dropped by 61.22% to 19 deals.
The market recorded one (1) gainer and two (2) losers, to close the day.
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate expanded by 9bps to 27.0% in the absence of any significant funding pressure on the system.
Proceedings in the Treasury bill secondary market were bullish, as the average yield contracted by 2bps to 20.7%.
Across the curve, the average yield contracted at the short (-1bp), mid (-1bp) and long (-3bps) segments, due to buying interest in the 84DTM (-1bp), 175DTM (-1bp) and 280DTM (-10bps) bills, respectively. In contrast, the average yield expanded by 4bps to 26.1% in the OMO segment.
Elsewhere, the Treasury bond secondary market traded with bullish sentiments, as the average yield contracted by 7bps to 18.6%.
Across the benchmark curve, the average yield contracted at the short (-15bps) and mid (-8bps) segments, driven by the demand for the JUL-2030 (-40bps) and FEB-2031 (-42bps) bonds, respectively.
The average yield remained unchanged at the long end.