August 3, 2020/Cordros Report

EQUITIES

Activities in the domestic equities market picked from where they left off last week, closing higher on gains in BUACEMENT (+2.0%), GUARANTY (+1.6%) and FLOURMILL (+10.0%). The NSE ASI rose by 0.3% to 24,766.12 points. Accordingly, Year-to-Date loss moderated to -7.7%.
 
The total volume of trades increased by 83.6% to 186.48 million units, valued at NGN1.31 billion and exchanged in 4,718 deals. TRANSCORP was the most traded stock by volume at 23.39 million units while GUARANTY was the most traded stock by value at NGN411.61 million.
 
The sectoral performance was mixed with gains recorded across the Industrial Goods (+0.8%), Banking (+0.7%) and Consumer Goods (+0.1%) indices, and a loss recorded in the Insurance (-2.4%) index. The Oil & Gas index was flat.
 
Market sentiment, as measured by market breadth, was positive (1.3x), as 19 tickers gained, relative to 15 losers. NEIMETH (+10.0%) and FLOURMILL (+10.0%) topped the gainers’ list, while UACN (-10.0%) and AIICO (-9.6%) were the top losers of the day.

CURRENCY

The naira appreciated by 0.3% and 0.4% to NGN388.00/USD and NGN473.00/USD, at the I&E window and parallel market, respectively.

MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME

The overnight lending rate expanded by 12.23ppts to 14.3%, as banks funded for CBN’s whole FX auction (USD110.00 million).
 
Trading in the NTB secondary market was mixed, as the average yield was flat at 1.8%. Across the curve, average yield expanded at the short (+2bps) end, following a sell-off of the 45DTM (+15bps) instrument, while it contracted at the mid (-2bps) segment, due to demand for the 101DTM (-8bps) instrument. Yield was flat at the long end. On the other hand, average yield contracted by 18bps to 4.1% at the OMO secondary market.
 
Elsewhere, trading in the Treasury bond secondary market was bearish, as average yield expanded by 8bps to 7.1%. Across the curve, average yield contracted at the short (-10bps) end, following demand for the JAN-2022 (-92bps) bond, while it expanded at the mid (+29bps) and long (+11bps) segments, as investors sold off the MAR-2027 (+63bps) and APR-2037 (+30bps) bonds, respectively.

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