Yielding further to negative sentiments’ pressure, equities trading on the floor of The Nigerian Stock Exchange closed in the negative territory, as the lead performance index NSEASI gave up 71Bpts of its trading point and rounded up trade at 32,244.24 from 32,473.82. Safe NSE-Insurance that gained, other observed market indices closed below their respective opening points. Week to Date, lead activities index is 83Bpts below the opening point while total gained point for the month of February is now 552Bpts. See the index movement table for details.
Value loss by the market capitalization of the listed equities during today’s trading activities was N85.610 billion, same as 71Bpts below the opening value. Meanwhile, trading activities for the day produced 10 ADVANCERS and 30 LAGERS. NSEASI Year to Date gain is now 259Bpts while the Market Capitalization Year to Date gain stood at N303.659 billion same as 259Bpts above the year’s opening value.
Negative sentiments had further bedeviled market performance, even as Nigeria concluded its presidential election process, which favored the incumbent government. The hullabaloos that characterized the process, may have called for heightened cautiousness even as we awaits the gubernatorial election few days from now. Nevertheless, market had been seen to pose strong resistance to un-expectations during the process before now, and we are of the opinion that the full year earnings season for listed equities with December financial year end will glue more investors to the market. We expect the effect of traders positioning for dividend, especially in highly capitalized Dangote Cement (N16.00 cash dividend proposed) to encourage the bull through the next trading day.
As at the time we compiled this report, Brent Crude trades at $66.26/bbl having loss 0.13% to stand above the last close price.
At the interbank rate today, the Naira closed unchanged at N306.85 against the dollar. See below table for BDC rates by four major locations within the country. Meanwhile, the I&E FX Window started from N361.67 traded as high as N362.50 before rounding up at N361.18, having transacted a total of $354.88 million through the day. Please note that, margin between the close and open value is an equivalent of 9Bpts gain. We are of the opinion that the FX-Market will trade within same range tomorrow.
In the money market, the Overnight (O/N) rate closed at 10.58%, same as 4.13% below the previous closing position. Meanwhile, Open Buy-Back (OBB) rate ended at 9.50%, that is, 4.29% below the previous close. We are of the opinion that the money market will maintain this range on the next business day. Safe Trade.
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