May 20, 2020/Cordros Report

EQUITIES

The domestic bourse maintained its positive momentum after today’s trading, as the All-Share Index increased by 1.1% to 24,452.23 points – the biggest move since rising 1.4% on May 06, 2020. Today’s performance is attributed to gains in some banking stocks and market heavyweights DANGCEM (+1.7%) and BUACEMENT (+1.9%). Consequently, Month-to-Date gain increased to 6.2%, as Year-to-Date losses moderated to -8.9%.

The total volume of trades increased by 28.6% to 436.84 million units, valued at NGN5.41 billion and exchanged in 5,195 deals. ZENITHBANK was the most traded stock by volume and value at 75.07 million units and NGN1.22 billion, respectively.

Sectoral performance was positive, as all sector indices recorded gains. The Banking (+2.8%) index led the gains, followed by the Insurance (+1.7%), Industrial Goods (+1.3%), Oil and Gas (+0.1%) and Consumer Goods (+0.1%) indices.

Market sentiment, as measured by market breadth, was positive (7.2x), as 36 tickers gained, relative to 5 losers. REDSTAREX (+10.0%) and JAIZBANK (+9.1%) were the top gainers of the day, while UNITYBNK (-3.9%) and UNIONDAC (-3.3%) recorded the largest losses.

CURRENCY

The naira weakened by 0.02% to NGN386.42/USD at the I&E window but remained flat at NGN460.00/USD at the parallel market.

MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME

The overnight lending rate contracted by 13bps to 2.3%, as system liquidity remains buoyant.
 
Trading in the NTB secondary market was bullish as average yield contracted by 8bps to 2.3%. Yield at the long (-30bps) end contracted, following demand for the 190DTM (-77bps) instrument. The short and mid segments remained flat. Similarly, average yield contracted by 136bps to 6.7% in the OMO secondary market.
 
Trading in the Treasury bond secondary market was bullish, as average yield contracted by 9bps to 10.4%. Across the curve, yields at the short (-21bps), mid (-5bps) and long (-1bp) segments contracted, following buying interests in the MAR-2024 (-66bps), FEB-2028 (-10bps) and MAR-2049 (-4bps) bonds, respectively.

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