December 16, 2019/InvestmentOne Report

Please click to download the Market Report for Monday 16^th December 2019

 EQUITY:

·         The Nigerian equities market closed positive today as NSE-ASI gained by 0.60% to close at 26,695.18pts.

·         Similarly, in today’s trade, market breadth index was positive with 17 gainers against 8 losers.

·         Today’s performance was mainly due to the gains recorded in GUINNESS (+9.83%), PZ (+9.52%), AGLEVENT (+7.69%), UBA (+6.06%) and ACCESS (+4.26%) which offset the losses recorded in CORNERST (-9.09%), NEIMETH (-9.09%), UPL (-8.33%), ROYALEX (-3.85%) and FBNH (-3.85%).

·         Sector performances were positive today as Banking (+0.99%), Industrial (+0.71%), Consumer Goods (+0.38%) and Oil & Gas (+0.55%) closed in green.

·         In terms of activity levels, total volume and total value increased by 10% and 43% compared to last week Friday, as investors exchanged over 171million units of shares worth over N2.05billion. ACCESS (+4.26%) was the most actively traded stock with about 41million units of shares worth about N397million.

·         The equities market closed up today as result of the gains recorded in the all sectors. We still maintain our view that investors should take positions in quality names with a medium to long time investment horizon as prices remain attractive at current levels.

CURRENCY:

·         At the IEFX window, the Naira lost 1.79%, 0.04% and 0.34% against GBP, USD and EUR to close at N484.30, N363.49 and N404.53 respectively.

·         At the parallel market, while the Naira lost 0.21% against GBP to close at N477, it closed flat  N363 and N398 against USD and EUR respectively.

·         Going forward, we expect the FX market to continue to see support from CBN’s intervention sales. 

FIXED INCOME:

·         Money market rates increased today as Open Buy Back and Overnight rates rose by 58bps and 57bps to close at 2.79% and 3.36% respectively. The increase in rates may have been due to OMO and FX auction conducted today which could have squeezed system liquidity.

·         At the OMO auction today, the CBN sold a total of N229.08billion on the 351-day bill at a stop rate of 13.28% same as the stop rate in the last auction.

·         The bond market was mixed today as yields moved in different directions across most tenors. As such, while the yield on the 5yr benchmark bond declined by 5bps to close at 10.85%, the yield on the 10yr benchmark bond increased by 2bps to close at 11.45%. However, for the 7yr benchmark bond, the yield remained flat closing at 11.05%.

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

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