December 22, 2017/InvestmentOne Report

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EQUITIES:

·         The positive close to the equities market continued today as the NSE-ASI gained +0.45% to 38,522.14pts. WTD the market is up +0.22%.

·         Today’s performance was largely driven by the gains in DANGCEM (+98pts), SEPLAT (+46pts), ACCESS (+25pts) and NESTLE (+23pts) which more than offset the declines in UNILEVER (-35pts) and NB (-12pts).

·         All major sectors finished positive with the exception of Consumer Goods (-0.22%). Oil & Gas (+2.61%), Banking (+0.53%) and Industrial (+0.48%) ended in the green.

·         Market breadth index ended positive as 25 stocks gained against 7 stocks that declined. The market’s best performer was CADBURY (+10.23%) while UNILEVER (-7.31%) topped the losers’ chart.

·         While the total volume fell by -52% to 204million units of shares, total value was relatively flat at N1.53billion. TRANSCORP (+2.80%) was the most actively traded stock with c.84million units of shares worth c.N119m.

·         Following the improvement in investor sentiment as indicated by the market breadth index, we could see the market continue to trend upwards on the back of renewed buy interest in the near term.

CURRENCY:

·         Naira continued to close at N360/USD levels at the IEFX window. However, it gained +0.25% to N426.11/EUR and shed -0.14 to N481.44/GBP.

·         At the parallel market, the NGN closed unchanged at N365/USD, N485/GBP and N428/EUR.

·         In the near term, we expect the Naira to continue to see support from the CBN’s intervention.  

FIXED INCOME:

·         While the Open-Buy-Back rate ended flat at 5.67%, the Overnight rate fell by -8bps to 6.33%. CBN conducted another OMO auction today selling N110billion worth of bills at 12.95% and 14.75% stop rates.

·         As at time of writing, the NIBOR rates for today were yet to be published.

·         Yield movement in the bond market was fairly muted today which may not be unconnected with the festive period. Nonetheless, the yield on the 5yr benchmark bond inched up +4bps to 14.04% while the yields on the 7yr and 10yr benchmark bonds were unchanged at 13.96% and 13.78% respectively.

·         In the near term, we expect market activity to be influenced by liquidity levels and foreign investor interest.  

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