EQUITIES:

• The equities market closed in the red for the second consecutive trading session this week, losing -0.03% to 25,266.15pts.
• Despite the negative end to the ASI today, market breadth index closed neutral as 19 stocks gained topped by CAP (+10.23%) against FO (-5.86%) which led the 19 stocks that declined.
• Today’s performance was largely driven by the decline in Banking names; ETI (-14pts), UBA (-13pts) and GUARANTY (-12pts), in addition to FO (-11pts). These performances combined to more than offset the gains in OANDO (+11pts), ZENITHBANK (+9pts), OKOMUOIL (+7pts) and PZ (+7pts).
• Major sector performance was mixed today as the Industrial (+0.59%) and Consumer Goods (+0.10%) sectors closed in the green while the Banking and Oil & Gas declined by -0.61% and -0.08% respectively.
• Although market activity remained less than inspiring, there was a significant pick up compared to yesterday’s session as investors exchanged 180m units of shares worth N1.62bn, representing a +84% and +137% increase in total volume and total value respectively.
• While we may see some level of support for the market from investors positioning for dividends, the ASI is likely to remain volatile in the near term given the lack of positive news flow to support a momentum. That said, we however advise investors to lengthen their horizon and gradually build position in quality names for a medium to long term horizon.
  

CURRENCY:

• The NGN was relatively stable at N306 level against the USD at the interbank market. It however recorded marginal gains of 0.44% and 0.1% against the GBP and EUR to settle at N381.16 and N326.67 respectively.
• At the parallel market, the NGN gained N5 against the USD to settle at N390 compared to N395 yesterday. It however closed flat at N480 and N415 level against the GBP and EUR .
• In the near term, we expect NGN performance to reflect the impact of USD sales to BDCs by the apex bank.
  

FIXED INCOME:

• System liquidity as at 3rd April stood at c.N63bn while both OVN and OBB contracted by 142bps each to end the session at 10% and 9.25%.  The 1month, 3month and 6month NIBOR rates also compressed by 41bps,30bps and 22bps to berth at 16.35%,20.67% and 23.29% respectively. In its bid to keep system liquidity tight, the CBN announced an OMO auction today, but ended up with no sales.
• The apex bank also announced Special Secondary Intervention Sales to provide FX for raw material and fuel importers as well as players in the aviation sector.
• In the bond market, yields inched up slightly on most tenors, particularly at the long-end of the curve. This may not be unconnected with profit-taking by traders on bullish trend in previous week. While yield on the 5yr and 10ye benchmark bonds gained 2bps and 5bps to berth at 15.56% and 15.84% respectively, yield on the 7yr benchmark bond closed flat at 15.62%.
• We expect activity in subsequent session to be influenced by liquidity level.
  

Below are key NSE statistics as at the end of trades:

As at time of publishing, the NASD OTC pricelist for Tuesday 4^th of April 2017 was not available.