…Naira Depreciates To N1,536.15/$1 At FX Market
Trading on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) on Wednesday sustained its downward trajectory as widespread sell-offs across key sectors pushed the market with the NGX All-Share Index (NGX-ASI) declined by 0.07% to close at 106,090.38 points.
As a result, the year-to-date (Y-T-D) return declined to 3.07% just as the market’s capitalization also lost N45.45 billion, settling at NGN 66.43 trillion.
Among the top losers during the trading were CONOIL (-10.00%), BERGER (-9.81%), INTENEGINS (-9.79%), and MULTIVERSE (-9.66%).
Available data from the Nigerian Exchange Group on the trading trend indicated that across the sector indices, the Banking index emerged as the only gainer, recording a 0.25% uptick driven by gains in JAIZBANK 6.04%, GTCO 2.84%, FIDELITYBK 0.59%, STERLINGNG 0.95%, and ZENITH 0.53%.
Conversely, the Oil and Gas index (-0.56%) led the losers’ chart due to share price depreciation in CONOIAL (-10%) and OANDO (-1.95%), followed by the Consumer Goods Index, which declining by 0.23% following a sell-off in DANSUGAR (-3%), HONYFLOUR (-0.08%), and NB (-0.32%). The Insurance Index also declined, falling by 0.22% weighed down by declines in INTENEGINS (-9.79%), AIICO (-3.03%), CONHALLPLC (-6.49%) while the Industrial Goods index recorded marginal decline.
However, trading metrics displayed a contrasting performance, with the total volume appreciating with an impressive 361.77% and total value of 29.57% respectively.
The NGX data at the close of the trading session showed that the financial services industry dominated the volume chart with SOVRENINS leading accounting for 66.7% of the total volume traded, despite declining by 5.66%, JAIZBANK followed appreciating by 6.04%, accounting for 12.50% of the volume traded.
Comparatively, the value chart was spread between ICT, Banking stocks and Oil and Gas with MTNN topping the value chart accounting for over 26.2% of the value trade, although the stock price remained unchanged.
A further assessment of the broad investment market reflected that in the fixed income space, short-term yields remained stable, while medium-term tenors continued to experience volatility, leading to a rise in yields in the previous trade session.
Also, on the foreign exchange (FX) market, the Naira weakened further against the US dollar, closing atN N1,536.15/$1.
Meanwhile, on the NASD OTC market, the bears sustained their hold on the market, as the NSI declined by 0.06%, closing at 3,387.53 points, driven by decline in SDFCWAMCO (-3.36%).
Our market sentiment, indicated by the UD ratio, dropped to 0.28 from the previous day’s 0.77, suggesting an intensified downward trend. Additionally, the market breadth stood at 0.59x, with 32 decliners and 19 advancers. Investors are advised to trade cautiously in fundamentally strong stocks, given the volatility in the market.
