WED, 18 NOV, 2020-theGBJournal-Sentiments in the local bourse turned positive today, as major interests in cement manufacturers, DANGCEM (+4.2%) and WAPCO (+9.6%), and NB (+7.4%) drove the market to its first gain in four consecutive trading sessions. Against the foregoing, the NSE ASI recouped some of this week’s losses, as it advanced by 1.7% to 34,818.01 points. Thus, Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date gains increased to 14.0% and 29.7%, respectively.
The total volume of trades decreased by 92.9% to 661.13 million units, valued at NGN8.30 billion, and exchanged in 7,324 deals. TRANSCORP was the most traded stock by volume at 160.58 million units, while GUARANTY was the most traded stock by value at NGN2.62 billion.
Sectoral performance was broadly positive, as gains in the Consumer Goods (+3.0%), Industrial Goods (+2.8%) and Banking (+2.5%) indices, masked declines in the Insurance (-0.4%) and Oil and Gas (-0.2%) indices.
Market sentiment, as measured by market breadth, was positive (4.8x), as 38 tickers gained, relative to 8 losers. LINKASSURE (+10.0%) and STERLNBANK (+10.0%) topped the gainers’ list, while CORNERST (-8.6%) and REGALINS (-8.3%) recorded the largest losses of the day.
Currency
The naira depreciated by 0.3% and 0.6% to NGN386.00/USD and NGN478.00/USD, at the I&E window and parallel market, respectively.
Money and Fixed Income
The overnight lending rate expanded by 50bps to 1.5%, in the absence of any significant inflows to the system.
Trading in the NTB secondary market remained mixed, following the quiet activity in the space. Thus, the average yield was unchanged at 0.1%. Similarly, average yield at the OMO secondary market was flat at 0.1%.
Treasury bonds traded minimally at the secondary market, as investors were more interested in today’s PMA. Nonetheless, average yield pared by 4bps to 4.0%. Across the curve, average yield declined at the short (-4bps), mid (-3bps) and long (-4bps) segments, following buying interests in the MAR-2025 (-11bps), FEB-2028 (-10bps) and MAR-2035 (-20bps) bonds, respectively.-With Cordros Research
Twitter-@theGBJournal|email: info@govandbusinessjournal.com.ng
