March 15, 2021/Cordros Report

EQUITIES

The local bourse kicked off the first trading day of the week on a bearish note, as investors booked profit in GUARANTY (-2.6%), NB (-5.3%) and INTBREW (-3.8%). As a result, the ASI declined by 0.2% to 38,516.84 points. Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date losses increased to -3.1% and -4.2%, respectively.

The total volume of trades declined by 37.2% to 184.53 million units, valued at NGN2.52 billion and exchanged in 3,527 deals. FBNH was the most traded stock by volume and value at 31.14 million units and NGN252.97 million, respectively.

Performance across sectors was mixed, following gains in the Insurance (+2.0%) and Oil & Gas (+0.7%) indices, and losses in the Consumer Goods (-1.5%) and Banking (-1.0%) indices. The Industrial Goods index however closed flat.

As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative (0.9x), as 17 tickers lost relative to 16 gainers. REGALINS (-9.1%) and LIVESTOCK (-8.5%) were the top losers of the day, while WAPIC (+10.0%) and NNFM (+9.7%) recorded the largest gains of the day.
 
CURRENCY

The naira appreciated by 0.3% to NGN408.90/USD at the I&E window but remained flat at NGN485.00/USD in the parallel market.
 
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME

The overnight lending rate contracted by 142bps to 12.8%, following inflows from the FGN bond coupon payment (NGN50.84 billion).

Activities at the NTB secondary market traded in a lull, as the average yield was flat at 2.8%. At the OMO secondary market, the average yield declined by 15bps to 6.6%.

The Treasury bonds secondary market was bearish, as the average yield in the space expanded by 14bps to 9.3%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield increased at the short (+34bps) and mid (+11bps) segments due to sell-offs of the JAN-2026 (+103bps) and MAR-2027 (+46bps) bonds, respectively. Conversely, the average yield declined slightly at the long (-1bps) end due to demand for the APR-2049 (-13bps) bond.

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