March 2, 2021/Cordros Report

EQUITIES

The local bourse ended the day lower as investors sold off NESTLE (-6.9%) and WAPCO (-7.1%) stocks. Consequently, the benchmark index declined by 0.6% to 39,697.62 points. Accordingly, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date losses increased to -0.3% and -1.4%, respectively.

The total volume of trades declined by 59.1% to 222.57 million units, valued at NGN5.39 billion, and exchanged in 4,470 deals. ZENITHBANK was the most traded stock by volume at 48.10 million units, while NESTLE was the most traded stock by value at NGN2.73 billion.

Performance across sectors was broadly negative, as four out of our five coverage indices – Consumer Goods (-3.9%), Oil & Gas (-0.9%), Industrial Goods (-0.4%) and Banking (-0.1%) – closed in the red. The Insurance (+0.2) index was the lone gainer of the day.

As measured by market breadth, market sentiment remained negative (0.7x), as 24 tickers declined, relative to 17 gainers. MBENEFIT (-10.0%) and ARDOVA (-10.0%) topped the losers’ list, while ACADEMY (+9.8%) and PZ (+9.4%) recorded the largest gains of the day.
 
CURRENCY

The naira weakened at the I&E window by 0.6% to NGN411.63/USD but appreciated by 0.4% to NGN480.00/USD in the parallel market.

MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME

The overnight lending rate declined by 192bps to 4.8%, as OMO maturities (NGN130.51 billion) boosted system liquidity.

Trading in the NTB secondary market remained mixed, as the average yield in the space was flat at 1.5%. The average yield was unchanged in the same vein at 6.1% at the OMO secondary market.

The Treasury bonds secondary market was mixed, with a bullish tilt, as average yield pared by 1bp to 9.1%. Across the curve, the average yield expanded at the short (+5bps) end due to the sell-off of the APR-2023 (+21bps) instrument and contracted at the mid (-12bps) segment following sustained demand for the APR-2029 (-28bps) bond.

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