October 18, 2017/Cordros Research

EQUITIES

• The equities market closed negative, with the ASI depreciating further by 0.08% to 36,641.52 points, as investors took profit on previous gains.

• The Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns moderated to 3.39% and 36.34%, respectively.

• The Oil & Gas (-0.45%), Insurance (-0.29%), and Banking (-0.18%) indices posted losses, following profit taking in the shares of TOTAL (-3%), NEM (-2.88%), and UBA (-1.52%), respectively, while the Consumer Goods (+0.02%) index recorded gains owing to demand for NB (+0.30%) shares. Meanwhile, the Industrial Goods index closed flat.

• Market breadth was negative with 13 gainers and 21 losers, led by GLAXOSMITH (+4.99%) and NAHCO (-5.56%), respectively. Total volume traded decreased by 6.25% to 198.63 million units, valued at N2.94 billion and exchanged in 3,543 deals.

• Corporate Release: GUARANTY 9M-2017 earnings; (PAT: N125.57 billion vs. N 119.93billion).

• Despite today’s performance, we believe the market still has potential – amid broadly bullish outlook for the economy and Q3’17 corporate earnings.

CURRENCY

• The naira was flat against the USD at N364 in the parallel market, while it appreciated by 0.04% to N360.27 in the I&E FX window. Total volume traded in the I&E FX window stood at USD328.01 million.

FIXED INCOME AND MONEY MARKET

• The overnight money market rate contracted by 375 bps to 22.92%, following anticipation of maturing OMO bills worth N75.64 billion tomorrow.

• Activities remained bearish in the NTB market, as average yield expanded by 22 bps to 17.48%. Selloffs persisted at the short and long segments, driven by the 65DTM (+122 bps) and 198DTM (+196 bps) bills. Meanwhile, snippets of demand ensued at the mid segment, owing to interest in the 184DTM (-30 bps) bill. The result of today’s NTB auction was unavailable at the time of writing.

• Conversely, proceedings in the bond market turned bullish, with average yield contracting by 5 bps to 14.79%. Yields contracted across all ends of the curve, following interests in the 29-JUN-2019, 13-FEB-2020, and 18-JUL-2034 (-29 bps) bonds.

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