November 4, 2021/Cordros Report
EQUITIES
Profit-taking activities continued today in the local bourse as selloffs in WAPCO (-1.9%), UNILEVER (-8.7%), and UBA (-2.4%) drove the benchmark index lower. Thus, the NGX ASI dipped by 0.1% to 41,943.83 points, with the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns unchanged at -0.2% and +4.2%, respectively.
The total volume of trades decreased by 45.1% to 160.88 million units, valued at NGN1.41 billion, and exchanged in 3,688 deals. FBNH was the most traded stock by volume and value at 19.52 million units and NGN208.30 million, respectively.
Sectoral performance was broadly negative as the Oil & Gas (-0.6%), Consumer Goods (-0.6%), Banking (-0.5%) and Industrial Goods (-0.1%) indices declined. The Insurance (+1.3%) index was the sole gainer.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative (0.5x) as 24 tickers lost relative to 13 gainers. PHARMDEKO (-10.0%) and UNILEVER (-8.7%) recorded the most significant losses of the day while SCOA (+9.5%) and LINKASSURE (+7.6%) topped the gainers’ list.
CURRENCY
The naira depreciated by 0.1% to NGN415.10/USD at the I&E window.
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate contracted by 50bps to 13.0% in the absence of any significant funding pressures on the system.
The NTB secondary market was quiet, albeit with a bullish bias, as the average yield pared by 1bp to 5.4%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield was flat at the short and mid-segments but contracted at the long (-2bps) end following demand for the 338DTM (-14bps) bill. Similarly, the average yield contracted slightly by 1bp at the OMO segment to 6.1%.
Trading in the Treasury bond secondary market was bearish, as the average yield expanded by 4bps to 11.2%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield expanded at the short (+9bps), and long (+1bps) ends as market participants sold off the MAR-2024 (+33bps) and APR-2037 (+5bps) bonds, respectively; the mid-segment was unchanged.
