April 4, 2018/Cordros Report
EQUITIES
- Proceedings in the equities market remained bearish, as the ASI dipped further by 0.26% to 40,749.86 points, as investors continued to book profit.
- Accordingly, the Month-to-Date loss increased to 1.82%, while the Year-to-Date gain dropped to 6.55%.
- The Banking (-0.92%), Insurance (-0.63%), and Consumer Goods (-0.26%) indices remained negative, owing to selloffs in the shares of FBNH (-1.22%), NEM (-4.90%), and DANGFLOUR (-9.54%) respectively. Meanwhile, interests in WAPCO (+1.27%) and FO (+2.70%) shares led to gains in the Industrial Goods (+0.59%) and Oil & Gas (+0.07%) indices respectively.
- Market breadth remained negative, with 26 losers and 18 gainers, led by DANGFLOUR (-9.54%) and LASACO (+5.88%) respectively. Growth in total volume (+9.76%) and value (+8.00%) of trades remained positive, at 401.41 million units and NGN6.77 billion, respectively, and exchanged in 5,370 deals.
- Despite extended weakness, strengthening macroeconomic fundamentals, as well as relatively softer prices in value stocks, continue to point to likelihood of gains on the bourse.
CURRENCY
- The USD/NGN remained flat at NGN362 in the parallel market, while it strengthened by 0.02% to NGN360.15 in the I&E FX window. Total trades in the I&E FX window increased by 4.81% to USD283.04 million, consummated within the NGN358-NGN361/USD band.
FIXED INCOME
- The overnight lending rate fell by 109 bps to 3.33% (vs. 4.42% yesterday) amidst still buoyant liquidity and in the absence of any OMO auction. OMO and treasury bills worth NGN338.50 billion and NGN190.40 billion will mature into the system tomorrow.
- Proceedings in the NTB market were bullish as average yield decreased by 27 bps to 14.29%. The short (-15 bps), mid (-39 bps), and long (-27 bps) segments recorded yield contractions. Notable bills include the 78DTM (-87 bps), 141DTM (-89bps), and 232DTM (-96 bps). At today’s NTB auction, NGN9.52 billion, NGN17.60 billion, and NGN68.08 billion of the 91-day, 182-day, and 364-day bills were allotted. The bills were 2.15x oversubscribed, with yields closing lower across the 91-day (11.75%; previously 11.95%), 182-day (12.70%; previously 13.00%), and 364-day (13.04%; previously 13.15%) bills.
- Sentiments in the bond market were also bullish, as average yield decreased by 4 bps to 13.59%. Yields contracted at all ends — short (-9 bps), mid (-1 bp), and long (-3 bps) — of the curve, following high demand for the JUN-2019 (-35 bps), MAR-2027 (-2bps) and JUL-2034 (-10 bps) bonds, respectively.
