May 8, 2018/Cordros Report

EQUITIES

• The bears continued to dominate the equities market, as the ASI dipped marginally, by 0.04%, to 41,155.80 points.  

• Accordingly, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns moderated to -0.27% and 7.62%, respectively.  

• The Consumer Goods (-0.31%) index recorded the largest loss, followed by the Insurance (-0.15%) and Oil & Gas (-0.01%) indices, owing to selloffs of FLOURMILL (-1.13%), CONTINSURE (-1.32%), and FO (-5.00%) shares respectively. On the flip side, the Banking (+0.68%) and Industrial Goods (+0.04%) indices closed in the green, following gains in the shares of GUARANTY (+1.33%) and CCNN (+4.92%) respectively. 

• Market breadth turned negative, with 25 losers and 24 gainers, led by FO (-5.00%) and CUTIX (+8.47%), respectively. Total volume and value of trades surged 154.58% and 124.74%, to 563.62 million units and NGN5.77 billion, respectively and exchanged in 4,217 deals. 

• Our outlook for the equities market, in the medium-to-long term, remains positive, amidst strengthening macroeconomic fundamentals.

CURRENCY

• The USD/NGN remained flat at NGN362 in the parallel market, while it strengthened by 0.07% to NGN360.64 in the I&E FX window. Total turnover in the I&E FX window decreased further by 24.62% to USD175.41 million, with trades consummated within the NGN314-NGN362.50/USD band.  

FIXED INCOME & MONEY MARKET

• The overnight lending rate eased to 6.60%, representing a 157 bps contraction from yesterday’s 8.17%, driven by still-healthy system liquidity.

• Bearish sentiments persisted in the treasury bills space, as average yield expanded by 13 bps to 11.44%. Selloffs of the 44DTM (+91 bps), 128DTM (+71 bps), and 310DTM (+50 bps) bills led to expansions at the short (+23 bps), mid (+13 bps), and long (+6 bps) ends of the curve, respectively.

• Sentiment in the bond space was largely mixed, albeit with a bullish bias, as yields moderated 2 bps on average to 12.91%. Whilst demand for the JUN-2019 (-22 bps) bond moderated yield at the short (+8 bps) end, selloff of the MAR-2027 (+16 bps) bond caused yield to trend higher at the mid (+5 bps) segment. Yield at the long end was flat.

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