December 18, 2023/Cordros Report
EQUITIES
The Nigerian equities market resumed the week on a positive note following buying interest in TRANSCOHOT (+9.4%) and FIDELITYBK (+2.7%). Thus, the All-Share Index inched higher by 2bps to close at 72,404.91 points. Accordingly, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns settled at +1.5% and +41.3%, respectively.
The total volume traded advanced by 5.6% to 324.25 million units, valued at NGN4.40 billion, and exchanged in 6,745 deals. MBENEFIT was the most traded stock by volume at 42.08 million units, while UBA was the most traded stock by value at NGN689.91 million.
On sectoral performance, the Oil & Gas (+0.1%) and Banking (+0.1%) indices recorded gains, while the Insurance (-1.3%) and Consumer Goods (-0.1%) indices printed losses. Meanwhile, the Industrial Goods index closed flat.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative (0.5x), as 32 tickers lost relative to 17 gainers. ABCTRANS (-9.9%) and ETRANZACT (-9.4%) topped the losers’ list, while INFINITY (+9.9%) and JOHNHOLT (+9.9%) recorded the most significant gains of the day.
CURRENCY
The naira appreciated by 0.2% to NGN888.35/USD at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM).
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate contracted by 115bps to 22.1%, in the absence of any significant inflows into the system.
Activities in the Treasury bills secondary market were bullish, as the average yield pared by 1bp to 8.3%. Across the curve, the average yield closed flat at the short and mid segments but contracted at the long (-1bp) end following demand for the 339DTM (-2bps) bill. Similarly, the average yield declined by 1bp to 12.9% in the OMO segment.
Conversely, the Treasury bond secondary market traded with bearish sentiments, as the average yield expanded by 2bps to 14.4%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield contracted at the short (-2bps) end driven by bargain hunting on the MAR-2024 (-8bps) bond but advanced at the long (+5bps) end due to the sell-off of the APR-2037 (+37bps) bond. However, the average yield closed flat at the mid segment.
Kindly see below our Mutual Fund prices and returns as of today.
