April 5, 2023/Cordros Report
EQUITIES
The domestic equities market recorded its third consecutive loss this week, as investors sold off AIRTELAFRI (-10.0%). Consequently, the All-Share index dipped by 1.9% to 53,018.97 points. Thus, the Month-to-Date loss increased to -2.2%, while the Year-to-Date gain fell to +3.5%.
The total volume traded declined by 33.5% to 197.33 million units, valued at NGN2.67 billion, and exchanged in 3,506 deals. UBA was the most traded stock by volume at 64.20 million units, while AIRTELAFRI was the most traded stock by value at NGN536.80 million.
Performance across sectors under our coverage was largely positive, as the Insurance (+0.9%), Banking (+0.5%), Oil & Gas (+0.1%), and Industrial Goods (+0.1%) indices advanced, while the Consumer Goods (-0.3%) index closed lower.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative (0.8x), as 14 tickers lost relative to 11 gainers. AIRTELAFRI (-10.0%) and IKEJAHOTEL (-9.9%) recorded the highest losses of the day, while WAPIC (+7.5%) and MBENEFIT (+6.3%) topped the gainers’ list.
CURRENCY
The naira depreciated by 0.1% to NGN463.75/USD at the I&E window.
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate expanded by 25bps to 19.0%, in the absence of any significant funding pressures on the system.
Activities in the Treasury bills secondary market were bullish, as the average yield contracted by 4bps to 7.7%. Across the curve, the average yield was unchanged at the short and mid segments but contracted at the long (-7bps) end following buying interest in the 337DTM (-56bps) bill. Elsewhere, the average yield was flat at 4.0% in the OMO segment.
The FGN bond secondary market closed on a bullish note, as the average yield contracted by 2bps to 13.4%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield declined at the short (-6bps) end as market participants demanded the MAR-2024 (-46bps) bond, but was flat at the mid and long segments.
