August 6, 2020/Cordros Report

EQUITIES

Positive sentiments continue to pervade the local bourse, as investors’ interests in SEPLAT (+9.0%), MTNN (+0.4%) and some banking stocks drove the benchmark index higher by 0.2% to 24,930.34 points. Consequently, the Month-to-Date gain expanded to +1.0% while the Year-to-Date loss moderated to -7.1%.
 
The total trade volume declined by 54.7% to 173.75 million units, valued at NGN2.13 billion and exchanged in 3,646 deals. FBNH was the most traded stock by volume at 29.78 million units while MTNN was the most traded stock by value at NGN636.60 million.
 
Sectoral performance was mixed, following gains in the Oil & Gas (+4.4%), Banking (+0.1%) and Consumer Goods (+0.1%) indices, and losses in the Industrial Goods (-0.7%) and Insurance (-0.02%) indices.
 
Market sentiment, as measured by the market breadth, was positive (2.0x), as 20 tickers gained relative to 10 losers. SEPLAT (+9.0%) and FIDSON (+8.6%) topped the gainers list, while UBN (-7.4%) and LEARNAFRCA (-6.9%) recorded the highest losses.

CURRENCY

The naira strengthened by 1.0% to NGN385.50/USD at the I&E window and while it remained flat at NGN474.00/USD at the parallel market.

MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME

The overnight lending rate contracted by 69bps to 8.6%, in the absence of any significant outflows from the system.
 
Trading in the NTB secondary market was mixed, as average yield was flat at 1.7%. Conversely, average yield contracted by 5bps to 3.9% at the OMO secondary market.
 
Elsewhere, trading in the Treasury bond secondary turned bullish, as average yield contracted by 19bps to 7.7%. Across the curve, average yield contracted at the short (-47bps) and long (-6bps) ends, due to demand for the JAN-2022 (-171bps) and MAR-2050 (-15bps) bonds, respectively. Yield was flat at the mid segment.

Click here to read full PDF copy of report