By Charles Abuede  

• Experts say positive momentum will persist amid some pockets of profit booking activities
• Naira stays firm, T-bills flat, bond negative

  Sustained bargain hunting dominated trading session as buying sentiments, particularly in fundamentally sound stocks, saw the index rest on the side of the bulls on the Nigerian Stock Exchange Tuesday. The equities market recorded gains due to buying interest in Dangote Cement (+3.7%), Zenith Bank (+4.0%) and Wapco (+7.1%) and as a result, the benchmark index appreciated 110 basis points to 34,225.22 points. Hence, market capitalisation improved by N199.5 billion to N18.4 trillion while the market’s year-to-date return rose to 31.2 per cent. Market activity level varied as volume traded rose 27 per cent to 264.2 million units while value traded fell 20.4 per cent to N2.9 billion. The most traded stocks by volume were Zenith Bank (36.5 million units), Guaranty Trust Bank – GTB – (33.8 million units) and Access Bank (23.4 million units) while Zenith Bank (N545.1 million), Airtel Africa (N538.6 million) and GTB (N407.6 million) led by value. The performance across sectors was bullish as 4 of 6 indices closed in the green. The consumer goods index was the lone loser, down 9 basis points due to sustained sell-offs in International Breweries (-3.1%). Conversely, the Insurance and Industrial goods indices led the gainers with 3.5 per cent and 2.4 per cent gains respectively as a result of price appreciation in AXA Mansard (+9.1%), AIICO (+4.4%), Dangote Cement (+3.7%) and Wapco (+7.1%). In the same vein, the banking and oil & gas indices gained 2.0 per cent and 0.4 per cent respectively on the back of price uptick in Zenith Bank (+4.0%), GTB (+1.7%) and OANDO (+5.1%). Meanwhile, the AFR-ICT index closed flat. Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) increased to 2.1x from the 1.9x recorded in the previous session as 29 stocks gained against the 14 that declined. Lasaco (+10.0%), AXA Mansard (+9.4%) and FTN Cocoa (+8.3%) led the gainers, while Red Star Express (-9.8%), Unity Bank (-8.8%) and OMATEK (-8.3%) led the decliners.   The NSE 30 The NSE 30 Index rose by 1.33 per cent to close at 1,445.29 points as against 1,426.31 points on the previous day. Market turnover closed with a traded volume of 164.47 million units. Lafarge Africa and Ecobank were the key gainers, while FCMB and International Breweries were the key losers.   Foreign Exchange In the Street FX market, the naira maintained its N475 to a dollar rate; and at the Importers’ & Exporters’ window rate held firm at N394 per dollar as most participants maintained bids at between N385 and N408.34 per dollar.   Treasury Bills NT-Bills secondary market closed on a flat note with average yield across the curve remaining unchanged at 0.56 per cent ahead of the N7 billion Primary Market Auction (PMA) to hold on Wednesday. Thus, the average yields across short-term, medium-term, and long-term maturities closed at 0.43 per cent, 0.54 per cent, and 0.66 per cent, respectively. While in the OMO bills market, sentiment was subdued, leading to a flattish close to the trading session as the average yield across the curve remained unchanged at 0.39 per cent. Average yields across short-term, medium-term, and long-term maturities closed flat at 0.36 per cent, 0.46 per cent, and 0.39 per cent, respectively.   Bonds Market FGN bonds secondary market closed on a negative note Tuesday as the average bond yield across the curve cleared higher by 3 basis points to close at 2.51 per cent from 2.48 per cent on the previous day. Average yields across short tenor and medium tenor of the curve widened by 4 basis points and 7 basis points, respectively, while the average yield across long tenor of the curve compressed by 3 basis points. The 14-MAR-2024 maturity bond was the best performer with a decline in yield of 47 basis points, while the 27-APR-2023 maturity bond was the worst performer with an increase in the yield of 33 basis points.