November 22, 2017/Cordros Report

EQUITIES

• The equities market closed positive, with the ASI appreciating marginally by 0.02% to 36,608.76 points, following gains in UNILEVER, NESTLE and GUARANTY, which outweighed profit taking in GLAXOSMITH, NB, and FLOURMILL.

• The Month-to-Date loss moderated to -0.20%, while the Year-to-Date return improved to 36.22%

• The Consumer Goods (+0.27), Banking (+0.24%), and Insurance (+0.20%) indices closed higher as demand ensued in the shares of UNILEVER (+5.67), ZENITHBANK (+1.28%), and LINKASSURE (+4.92%), respectively. Meanwhile, the Industrial Goods and Oil & Gas indices closed flat.

• However, market breadth was negative with 23 losers and 17 gainers led by GLAXOSMITH (-9.50%) and UNILEVER (+5.69) respectively. Total volume traded increased by 28.42% to 331 million units, valued at N5.56 billion, and exchanged in 3,231 deals.

• We think bargain hunting will persist in the coming session, on the back of strong market fundamentals.

CURRENCY

• The naira depreciated against the USD by 0.22% to N360.65 in the I&E FX window, while it remained flat at 364 in the parallel market. Total volume traded in the I&E FX window stood at USD234.23 million, exchanged within the range of N306.00 and N361.50.

FIXED INCOME AND MONEY MARKET

• The overnight money market rate contracted further by 266 bps to 29.17% – despite outflow via OMO auction worth N44.3 billion today – following anticipation of inflow via maturing OMO bills worth N200.96 billion tomorrow.

• Activities remained bullish in the NTB market, as average yield contracted by 9 bps to 16.36%. Yields moderated at the short (-18bps) and long (-11 bps) ends of the curve, following demand for the 64DTM (-100 bps) and 295DTM (-227 bps) bills respectively, while it expanded at the mid (+2 bps) segment, driven by selloff of the 176DTM (+19 bps) bill.

• Proceedings turned bearish in the bond market, as average yield expanded marginally by 1 bp to 14.66%. Yields expanded at the mid (+2 bps) and long (+1 bp) ends of the curve, driven by the JUL-2021 (+5 bps) and MAR-2027 (+8 bps) bonds, respectively. On the flip side, yield contracted by less than 1 bp at the short segment, owing to demand for the JUN-2019 (less than 1 bp) bond. 

Click here to download full PDF copy of report