February 24, 2022/Cordros Report
EQUITIES
The Nigerian equities market reversed yesterday’s loss and traded positively, driven by investors’ interest in SEPLAT (+7.5%). Thus, the All-Share Index advanced by 0.1% to 47,272.04 points. Accordingly, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns increased to +1.4% and +10.7%, respectively.
The total volume of trades increased by 47.7% to 340.67 million units, valued at NGN3.86 billion, and exchanged in 5,383 deals. CUSTODIAN was the most traded stock by volume at 39.17 million units, while MTNN was the most traded stock by value at NGN588.82 million.
Performance across sectors was mixed, as the Oil & Gas (+3.9%) and Insurance (+1.0%) indices gained, while the Consumer Goods (-0.6%) and Banking (-0.3%) indices printed losses. Elsewhere, the Industrial Goods index closed flat.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive (1.5x) as 25 tickers gained relative to 17 losers. ETRANZACT (+10.0%) and LEARNAFRCA (+9.9%) recorded the highest gains of the day, while MULTIVERSE (-8.0%) and INTBREW (-4.6%) topped the losers’ list.
CURRENCY
The naira depreciated by 0.1% to NGN416.25/USD at the I&E window.
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate expanded by 367bps to 13.2%, following outflows for net NTB issuances (NGN142.73 billion).
Trading in the NTB secondary market was bearish, as the average yield expanded by 7bps to 3.7%. At yesterday’s NTB auction, the CBN offered NGN115.28 billion for sale with a total subscription of NGN602.65 billion. Eventually, the CBN allotted NGN258.01 billion – NGN5.36 billion of the 91-day, NGN11.03 billion of the 182-day and NGN241.61 billion of the 364-day bills – at respective stop rates of 2.24% (previously 2.48%), 3.30% (unchanged), and 4.35% (previously 5.20%). Elsewhere, the average yield contracted by 26bps to 4.6% in the OMO segment.
The Treasury bond secondary market traded with mixed sentiments, albeit with a bullish tilt, as the average yield pared by 1bp to 11.0%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield contracted at the short (-1bp) and long (-9bps) ends following demand for the MAR-2024 (-1bp) and MAR-2035 (-8bps) bonds, respectively but expanded at the mid (+13bps) segment as investors sold off the APR-2029 (+53bps) bond.
