By Charles Abuede

• Investors take N641.1bn in profit
• Naira lost strength against the dollar by N1 on street market

  The domestic Nigerian equities market spiked in performance and value following the significant appreciation recorded on the trading floor on Monday to see a bullish kickoff. However, there were signs too that more profit-taking activities are ahead in the next trading session with the market’s performance expected to be supported by earnings releases. The benchmark index took off on a bullish note, rising 3.96 per cent to settle at 32,243.05 points following gains in Dangote Cement (+6.0%), MTN (+4.2%) and BUA Cement (+4.4%). Consequently, investors value appreciated by N641.1 billion to settle at N16.8 trillion, while year till date return improved to 20.1 per cent. Similarly, the market activity level surged as volume and value traded advanced 27.7 per cent and 60.2 per cent to 636 million units and N8.2 billion respectively. The most traded stocks by volume were Zenith Bank (70.2million units), FBN Holding (67.7million units) and Access Bank (58.0million units) while Zenith Bank (N1.6billion), MTN (N1.2billion) and Guaranty Trust Bank – GTB –(N757.2million) led by value chart. Sublime sector performance  The performance was bullish across sectors as all gained. The banking and industrial goods indicators recorded the strongest appreciation, up 6.6 per cent and 5.5 per cent respectively due to gains in GTB(+5.1%), Zenith Bank (+6.7%), Dangote Cement (+6.0%) and BUA Cement (+4.4%). Similarly, the AFR-ICT and consumer goods indices rose 2.3 per cent and 1.8 per cent respectively as a result of buying interest in MTN (+4.2%), Dangote Sugar (+9.7%) and Flour Mills (+4.6%). Finally, investors interest in AXA Mansard Insurance (+4.0%), OANDO (+10.0%) and ARDOVA (+6.3%) drove the insurance and oil & gas indices up 1.6 per cent and 1.0 per cent respectively. Investor sentiment improved Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) settled at 4.5x, an improvement from the 2.8x recorded in the previous trading day as 49 stocks gained against the 11 that declined. OANDO (+10.0%), Mutual Benefit (+10.0%), Wapco Insurance (+10.0%) and Northern Nigeria Flour Mills (+10.0%) were the top gainers, while NCR (-10.0%), Learn Africa (-8.7%) and Conoil Plc (-6.3%) led the losers. The NSE 30 The NSE 30 Index increased by 4.47 per cent to close at 1,402.36 points as against 1,342.41 points on the previous session. Market turnover closed with a traded volume of 495.55 million units. Lafarge Africa and Sterling Bank were the key gainers, while Custodian was the only loser. Money market A look into the foreign exchange markets showed the domestic currency, the naira, trading at range bound and weakening by N1 at N465 to a dollar from N464 in the parallel market. Also, at the Importers’ &Exporters’ (I&E) FX market, the naira appreciated by 0.09 per cent as the dollar was quoted at N385.67 as against the last close of N386. Most participants maintained bids between N380 and N394 per dollar. Treasury bills Despite the high expectation for low demand for NT-Bills due to low yield environment, the NT-Bills secondary market closed on a negative note, with the average yield across the curve increasing by 2 basis points to close at 0.52 per cent from 0.50 per cent on the previous day. Average yields across short-term, medium-term, and long-term maturities closed at 0.36 percent, 0.79 percent (-4 bps), and 0.46 percent (+5 bps), respectively. The highest yield increase was witnessed in the 1-Jul-21 maturity bill, which rose by 26 basis points, while the highest yield decline was seen in the 9-Sep-21 maturity bill, which fell by 32 basis points. In the OMO bills market, the average yield across the curve declined by 2 basis points to close at 0.19 per cent as against the last close of 0.21 per cent. Buying interest was seen across medium-term and long-term maturities with average yields falling by 3 basis points and 5 basis points, respectively. However, the average yields across short-term maturities closed flat at 0.21 per cent with yields on eight bills compressing. Also, the 25-May-21 maturity bill recorded the highest yield decline of 17 basis points while yields on 18 bills remained unchanged. Bond market The FGN bond market closed on a negative note Monday, as the average bond yield across the curve cleared higher by one basis point to close at 1.88 per cent from 1.87 per cent the previous session. Average yields across short tenor and long tenor of the curve advanced by one basis point and five basis points, respectively, while the average yield across medium tenor of the curve compressed by three basis points. The 17-MAR-2027 maturity bond was the best performer with a decline in yield of 21 basis points, while the 18-APR-2037 maturity bond was the worst performer with an increase in yield of 20 basis points.