April 25, 2023/Cordros Report
EQUITIES
The domestic equities market kicked off this week on a bullish note, as bargain-hunting in top telecommunication player – MTNN (+2.2%) led the All-Share Index to close 0.5% higher to 51,606.49 points. Accordingly, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns settled at -4.8% and +0.7%, respectively.
The total volume traded increased by 247.9% to 2.09 billion units, valued at NGN8.85 billion, and exchanged in 6,404 deals. TRANSCORP was the most traded stock by volume and value at 1.66 billion units and NGN4.09 billion, respectively.
Sectoral performance was broadly positive, as the Banking (+1.3%), Consumer Goods (+0.4%), Industrial Goods (+0.1%), and Insurance (+0.1%) indices recorded gains, while the Oil & Gas index closed flat.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive (3.7x), as 33 tickers gained relative to 9 losses. JAPAULGOLD (+10.0%) and HONYFLOUR (+9.9%) topped the gainers’ list, while WAPIC (-7.3%) and NGXGROUP (-4.9%) recorded the highest losses of the day.
CURRENCY
The naira appreciated by 0.1% to NGN463.44/USD at the I&E window.
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate contracted by 375bps to 15.3%, in the absence of any significant funding pressure on the system.
Activities in the Treasury bills secondary market were bullish, as the average yield contracted by 14bps to 9.0%. Across the curve, the average yield closed flat at the short end but declined at the mid (-1bp) and long (-21bps) segments as participants demanded the 142DTM (-1bp) and 317DTM (-196bps) bills, respectively. Elsewhere, the average yield remained flat at 4.0% in the OMO segment.
Trading in the FGN bond secondary market was bullish, as the average yield contracted by 4bps to 13.6%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield declined at the short (-7bps) and long (-3bps) ends as investors demanded the APR-2023 (-40bps) and MAR-2050 (-20bps) bonds, respectively. The average yield was flat at the mid-segment.
