December 23, 2020/Cordros Report

EQUITIES

The domestic equities market sustained positive trading, following buying interests in large-caps, AIRTELAFRI (+10.0%), BUACEMENT (+9.1%) and NB (+1.8%) stocks. As a result, the benchmark index increased by 2.4% to 38,803.74 points. Accordingly, Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date gain increased to 10.7% and 44.6%, respectively.
 
The total volume of trades increased by 238.6% to 1.50 billion units, valued at NGN18.75 billion, and exchanged in 4,316 deals. ACCESS was the most traded stock by volume and value at 1.04 billion units and NGN8.40 billion, respectively.
 
On sectors, the Industrial Goods (+3.1%), Consumer Goods (+0.4%) and Banking (+0.2%) indices recorded gains, while the Insurance (-0.8%) index declined. The Oil & Gas index was flat.
 
Market sentiment, as measured by market breadth, was positive (3.4x), as 24 tickers gained, relative to 7 losers. ABCTRANS (+10.0%) and AIRTELAFRI (+10.0%) recorded the largest gains of the day, while FCMB (-4.0%) and PZ (-3.6%) topped the losers’ list.
 
CURRENCY

The naira appreciated by 0.7% and 0.2% to NGN392.00/USD and NGN475.00/USD at the I&E window and parallel market, respectively.

MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME

The overnight lending rate contracted by 13bps to 0.8%, in the absence of any significant outflows from the system.

Trading in the NTB secondary market was mixed, as the average yield was flat at 0.4%. Across the curve, average yield contracted at the short (-3bps) end, due to buying interests in the 8DTM (-11bps) instrument, and expanded at the mid (6bps) segment, following sell-offs of the 141DTM (+14bps) instrument. Average yield was unchanged at the long end. Elsewhere, the average yield at the OMO secondary market declined by 4bps to 0.5%.

Trading in the Treasury bonds secondary market was bearish, as the average yield expanded by 10bps to 5.5%. Across the curve, average yield expanded at the short (+18bps) and mid (+15bps) segments, following sell-offs of the JAN-2026 (+61bps) and MAR-2027 (+40bps) bonds, but pared at the long (-1bp) end, due to demand for the MAR-2050 (-1bp) bond.

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