Rallies on equities at the Nigerian stock market sustained momentum on Wednesday as the market again advanced by 0.15 per cent to the delight of investors who smiled home with N20 billion gain.
The midweek’s trading marked the sixth consecutive session of closing positive by the domestic bourse.
As the market gained, its benchmark index, that is, the All-Share Index went up by gaining 38.37 points to close at 25,330.10 basis points while the monetary valuation of the equities market closed higher at N13.215 trillion.
The session closed on an impressive note on the back of gains recorded by 24 advancing stocks, strongly supported by 4.5 per cent appreciation in STANBIC shares, against eight declining counterparts.
Month-to-Date (MtD) gain increased to 2.6 per cent while the Year-to-Date (YtD) loss moderated to -5.6 per cent.
Analysing by sectors, the Insurance (-0.9 per cent) and Banking (-0.03 per cent) indices declined while the Consumer Goods (0.2 per cent) index recorded the sole gain of the day. The Industrial Goods and Oil & Gas indices were flat.
The total trade volume declined by 28.1 per cent to 180.73 million units, valued at N1.36 billion and exchanged in 3,411 deals. FIDELITYBK was the most traded stock by volume at 26.57 million units while NESTLE was the most traded stock by value at NGN198.10 million.
However, in the fixed income market, the overnight lending rate contracted by 12bps to 2.4 per cent, in the absence of funding pressures on the system.
Trading in the NTB secondary market was mixed, as market participants shifted their focus to the NTB PMA that held on Wednesday.
Thus, average yield was flat at 1.7 per cent. At the PMA, the CBN rolled over maturing bills worth N197.60 billion with allotments of N20.37 billion of the 91-day, N55.85 billion of the 182-day and N121.38 billion of the 364-day – at respective stop rates of 1.15 per cent previously 1.20 per cent; 1.80 per cent, previously 1.39 per cent; and 3.34 per cent, previously 3.12 per cent.
On the other hand, average yield contracted by 18bps to 3.2 per cent at the OMO secondary market.
Elsewhere, trading in the Treasury bond secondary market remained bearish, as average yield expanded by 3bps to 7.9 per cent.
Across the benchmark curve, yield expanded at the short (3bps) and long (6bps) ends, due to sell-offs of the JAN-2022 (8bps) and APR-2037 (18bps) bonds respectively, while they contracted at the mid (-3bps) segment, following demand for the FEB-2028 (-10bps) bond.
