April 28, 2020/Cordros Report
EQUITIES
Trading in the domestic equities market continued bullish, as investor interest in NESTLE (+1.1%), DANGSUGA (+3.8%) and some Tier 1 banks’ stocks spurred a consecutive gain in the All-Share Index. Specifically, the NSE ASI increased by 0.5% to 22,727.87 points. Accordingly, Month-to-date gain increased to 6.7% as Year-to-Date losses moderated to -15.3%.
The total volume of trades increased by 146.6% to 266.63 million units, valued at NGN2.75 billion and exchanged in 4,259 deals. UBA was the most traded stock by volume at 48.83 million units while NESTLE was the most traded stock by value at NGN538.51 million.
Sectoral performance was broadly positive, as gains in the Banking (+2.8%), Insurance (+0.5%) and Consumer Goods (+0.3%) indices masked the declines recorded in the Industrial Goods (-0.2%) and Oil and Gas (-0.2%) indices.
Market sentiment, as measured by market breadth, was positive (1.7x), as 17 tickers gained, relative to 10 losers. CORNERST (+9.3%) and LASACO (+7.7%) were the top gainers of the day, while WAPIC (-7.4%) and AFRIPRUD (-6.0%) were the top losers of the day.
CURRENCY
The naira weakened at the parallel market by 2.2% to NGN460.00/USD, while it was flat at NGN386.25/USD at the I&E FX window.
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate contracted by 342bps to 12.1% in the absence of any significant outflow from the system.
Trading in the NTB secondary market was mixed, as average yield across instruments was flat at 2.7%, as market players ready bids for tomorrow’s PMA where the CBN will be rolling over NGN131.53 billion worth of maturities. Conversely, average yield contracted by 12bps to 9.8% in the OMO secondary market.
Trading in the Treasury bond secondary market remained bullish, as average yield contracted by 15bps to 10.3%. Across the curve, yields contracted at the short (-12bps), mid (-5bps) and long (-26bps) segments following demand for the JAN-2022 (-50bps), MAR-2027 (-18bps) and MAR-2036 (-92bps) bonds, respectively.