March 6, 2023/Cordros Report
EQUITIES
The domestic equities market kicked off this week on a bullish note, as bargain-hunting in top telecommunication player – MTNN (+1.2%) led the All-Share Index to close 0.1% higher to 55,605.57 points. Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns settled at -0.4% and +8.5%, respectively.
The total volume traded decreased by 83.5% to 123.55 million units, valued at NGN2.48 billion, and exchanged in 4,076 deals. TRANSCORP was the most traded stock by volume at 11.80 million units, while GEREGU was the most traded stock by value at NGN604.27 million.
Sectoral performance was mixed, as the Banking (-0.3%) and Consumer Goods (-0.1%) indices printed losses, while the Insurance (+0.1%) index advanced. On the other hand, the Industrial Goods and Oil & Gas indices closed flat.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative (0.8x), as 20 tickers lost relative to 16 gainers. CWG (-7.1%) and FTNCOCOA (-6.7%) topped the losers’ list, while JBERGER (+10.0%) and UNITYBNK (+9.3%) recorded the most significant gains of the day.
CURRENCY
The naira appreciated by 0.1% to NGN461.33/USD at the I&E window.
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate contracted by 74bps to 11.7%, in the absence of any significant inflow into the system.
Activities in the Nigerian Treasury bills secondary market were muted, as the average yield remained at 4.0%. Similarly, the average yield closed flat at 3.0% in the OMO segment.
Elsewhere, the Treasury bond secondary market traded with bullish sentiments, as the average yield contracted by 3bps to 13.0%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield contracted at the short (-2bps) and long (-5bps) ends as investors demanded the MAR-2024 (-5bps) and APR-2037 (-18bps) bonds, respectively. Conversely, the average yield was flat at the mid segment.
