Price accretion in Wapco, FBN holding, Access Bank called for the bulls on Monday as investors made N34bn profit

Charles Abuede

The bulls regain Customs Street on Monday after a 4-day bearish run from the last week’s sessions which propelled the NSE All-Share Index to rise 0.17 per cent to 39,396.57 points due to price accretion and buying interest in Wapco plc (+7.7%), First Bank Holding (+2.8%) and Access Bank (+2.6%). Consequently, market investors, through bargain hunting gained N34 billion as the market year to date loss improved to -2.2 per cent and market capitalisation advanced by N34 billion to N20.6 trillion.

On the contrary, the level of trading activity waned as volume and value of transactions on Monday declined by 49.4 per cent and 76.8 per cent respectively to 297.3 million units and N3.2 billion. The most traded stocks by volume were Zenith Bank (66.5m units), First Bank Holding (23.5m units) and AXA Mansard (21.4m units) while Zenith Bank (N1.7bn), Stanbic IBTC (N278.5m) and First Bank Holding (N169.5m) led by value.

On Monday, the market performance across sectors was mixed as 3 of the 6 indices under closed northward. The Insurance index emerged as the top gainer, up 1.3 per cent due to buying interest in Cornerstone Insurance (+9.1%), Aiico Insurance (+3.5%) and Linkage Insurance (+10.0%). In the same way, the oil & gas and Industrial goods indices rose 1.0 per cent and 0.5 per cent respectively following gains in Oando Plc (+9.4%), Ardova plc (+10.0%) and Wapco Plc (+7.7%). On the flip side, the consumer goods and banking indices lost 6 basis points and 3 basis points respectively due to declines in International Breweries (-1.6%), Cadbury Plc (-3.6%), Zenith Bank (-1.6%) and Fidelity Bank (-6.1%). Lastly, the AFR-ICT index closed flat.

Nevertheless, investors’ sentiment brightened, as the market breadth was pegged at 1.7x from the 0.7x recorded previously as 24 stocks advanced against 14 decliners. Leading the gainers’ chart was Linkage Assurance (+10.0%), followed by Ardova Plc (+10.0%) and Champion (+9.5%) while Meyer (-10.0%), Livestock (-9.9%) and SCOA (-9.8%) were the top losers.

The NSE 30

Elsewhere, the NSE 30 Index increased by 0.28 per cent to close at 1,574.44 points as against 1,570.11 points as on the previous day. Market turnover closed with a traded volume of 138.73 million units. Sterling and Lafarge Africa were the key gainers, while Fidelity and International Breweries were the key losers.

FX market

In the foreign exchange market, the naira weakened by N2 per dollar in the parallel market to trade at N482 to the greenback from its last close of N480 per dollar; while at the I&E foreign exchange market, the naira fell by 0.21 per cent as the dollar was quoted at N411.88 to the dollar as against the last close of N411 per dollar. Most market participants maintained bids between N392.50 and N415.00 per dollar.

Treasury Bills

Further afield, the Nigerian treasury bills market closed on a negative note with average yield across the curve increasing by 35 basis points to close at 1.88 per cent from 1.53 per cent on the previous day. Also, the average yield across long-term maturities widened by 61 basis points, while the average yields across short-term and medium-term maturities declined by 4 basis points and 7 basis points, respectively. Yields on 11 bills advanced with the 27-Jan-22 maturity bill recording the highest yield decline of 173 basis points, while yields on 6 bills remained unchanged.

On the other hand, the OMO bills market average yield across the curve declined by 14 basis points to close at 6.22 per cent as against the last close of 6.36 per cent. Buying interest was seen across short-term, medium-term, and long-term maturities with average yields falling by 27 basis points, 2 basis points, and 14 basis points, respectively. Yields on 10 bills compressed with the 25-Jan-22 maturity bill recording the highest yield decline of 144 basis points, while yields on 14 bills remained unchanged.

Bonds market

While the FGN bonds secondary market traded bearish, resulting in the average bond yield across the curve clearing higher by 40 basis points to close at 5.69 per cent from 5.29 per cent on the previous day. Notably, the average yield across short tenor of the curve increased by 52 basis points, while average yields across medium tenor and long tenor of the curve remained unchanged. The FGN Sukuk bond 13-JUN-2021 was the best performer with a decline in yield of 21 basis points, while the FGN Sukuk bond 11-MAR-2022 was the worst performer with an increase in yield of 170 basis points.