March 16, 2023/Cordros Report
EQUITIES
The bears continued to dominate on the local bourse as investors took profits off MTNN (-5.0%). Precisely, the All-Share Index shed 1.0% to close at 54,915.61 points. Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns printed -1.6%, and +7.2%, respectively.
The total volume traded declined by 24.2% to 137.29 million units, valued at NGN1.51 billion, and exchanged in 3,489 deals. TRANSCORP was the most traded stock by volume at 26.08 million units, while ZENITHBANK was the most traded stock by value at NGN353.89 million.
Sectoral performance was broadly negative, as the Banking (-1.0%), Insurance (-0.4%), Consumer Goods (-0.2%), and Industrial Goods (-0.1%) indices printed losses, while the Oil & Gas index closed flat.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative (0.3x), as 25 tickers lost relative to 8 gainers. ETI (-10.0%) and IMG (-9.3%) topped the losers’ list, while CHAMS (+8.7%) and UPL (+7.6%) recorded the highest gains of the day.
CURRENCY
The naira depreciated by 0.2% to NGN462.00/USD at the I&E window.
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate was unchanged at 11.0%, as the system liquidity closed at a net long position (NGN574.03 billion).
Activities in the Treasury bills secondary market were bearish, as the average yield expanded by 4bps to 4.4%. Across the curve, the average yield was flat at the short and mid segments but expanded at the long (+7bps) end as participants sold off the 182DTM (+62bps). Elsewhere, the average yield was flat at 3.0% in the OMO segment.
Similarly, trading in the FGN bond secondary market was bearish, as the average yield expanded by 5bps to 12.9%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield expanded at the short (+30bps) end, due to the selloff of the MAR-2024 (+198bps) bond but contracted at the mid (-31bps) and long (-1bp) segments as investors demanded the APR-2032 (-49bps) and JUL-2045 (-3bps) bonds, respectively.
