THUR, 24 SEPT, 2020-theGBJournal-The bulls dominated trading in the domestic equities market, as buying interest in MTNN (+0.1%), NB (+10.0%) and ZENITHBANK (+0.6%) drove the market higher for the fifth consecutive trading session. Thus, the benchmark index rose by 0.8% to 25,987.14 points – the largest gain since August 12, 2020. Consequently, the Month-to-Date gain increased to 2.6% while the Year-to-Date loss moderated to -3.2%.
The total volume traded declined by 13.2% to 359.31 million units, valued at NGN3.87 billion and exchanged in 3,576 deals. STERLNBANK was the most traded stock by volume at 71.89 million units while GUARANTY was the most trade stock by value at NGN1.35 billion.
Analyzing by sectors, performance was mixed following gains in the Consumer Goods (+2.1%), Banking (+1.6%), and Industrial Goods (+0.9%) indices and losses in the Insurance (-0.7%) and Oil & Gas (-0.2%) indices.
Market sentiment, as measured by the market breadth, was positive (3.6x), as 25 tickers gained relative to 7 losers. NB (+10.0%) and UNIONDAC (+8.0%) topped the gainers’ list while ARDOVA (-9.7%) and DAARCOMM (-9.1%) recorded the largest losses of the day.
Currency
The naira was flat at NGN386.00/USD and NGN467.00/USD at the I&E window and parallel market, respectively.
Money market and fixed Income
The overnight lending rate expanded by 8bps to 1.8%, in the absence of any significant inflows to the system.
Trading in the NTB secondary market was bullish, as the average yield contracted by 6bps to 1.6%. Across the curve, yield expanded at the short (+10bps) end, due to a sell-off of the 7DTM (+31bps) instrument. Conversely, average yield contracted at the mid (-39bps) and long (-1bp) segments, following demand for the 154DTM (-51bps) and 217DTM (-9bps) instruments, respectively. Elsewhere, average yield contracted by 6bps to 1.8% at the OMO secondary market.
Trading in the Treasury bond secondary market was bullish, as average yield contracted by 28bps to 7.1%. Across the curve, yield contracted at the short (-12bps), mid (-32bps) and long (-40bps) segments, following demand for the MAR-2025 (-52bps), MAR-2027 (-72bps) and APR-2037 (-115bps) bonds, respectively.-With Cordros Reseach.
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