October 4, 2021/Cordros Report
EQUITIES
The bullish momentum in the domestic bourse switched onto a higher gear as the benchmark index advanced by 1.2% to 40,716.66 points. Precisely, foreign investors interest in AIRTELAFRI (+6.3%) following its share buy-back plan buoyed the impressive performance. Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns increased to +1.2% and +1.1%, respectively.
The total volume of trades increased by 114.0% to 432.99 million units, valued at NGN3.13 billion, and exchanged in 4,377 deals. UNIVINSURE was the most traded stock by volume at 105.11 million units, while GTCO was the most traded stock by value at NGN721.39 million.
Across sectors, the Banking (+2.5%) and Oil & Gas (+0.8%) indices posted gains, while the Insurance (-2.6%) and Consumer Goods (-0.4%) indices declined. The Industrial Goods index was flat.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive (1.8x) as 31 tickers gained relative to 17 losers. FBNH (+9.8%) and PHARMDEKO (+9.7%) recorded the most significant gains, while UPL (-9.6%) and REGALINS (-8.9%) topped the losers’ list.
CURRENCY
The naira depreciated by 0.2% to NGN414.30/USD at the I&E window.
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate contracted by 192bps to 6.8% in the absence of any significant funding pressures on the system.
Trading in the NTB secondary market was bullish, as the average yield contracted by 18bps to 5.1%. Across the benchmark curve, average yield contracted at the short (-79bps) end due to demand for the 9DTM (-89bps) bill but expanded at the long (+4bps) end as investors sold off the 296DTM (+22bps) bill; the mid-segment closed flat. Elsewhere, the average yield at the OMO segment was flat at 6.3%.
The Treasury bond secondary market turned bearish, as the average yield expanded slightly by 3bps to 11.1%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield contracted at the short (-8bps) end as investors bought up the JAN-2022 (-48bps) bond but expanded at the mid (+4bps) and long (+13bps) segments following selloffs of the JUL-2030 (+8bps) and JUL-2034 (+23bps) bonds, respectively.
