WED, 16 DEC, 2020-theGBJournal- The overnight lending rate contracted by 2bps to 0.9%, in the absence of any significant outflows from the system.
The NTB secondary market traded with bullish sentiments, as participants covered for lost bids at today’s auction. Thus, average yield pared by 3bps to 0.5%. At the PMA, the CBN offered bills worth NGN7.00 billion with allotments of NGN1.50 billion of the 91-day, NGN1.70 billion of the 182-day and NGN3.80 billion of the 364-day – at respective stop rates of 0.0480% (previously 0.01%), 0.5000% (previously 0.60%), and 1.1390% (previously 3.20%). Similarly, the average yield at the OMO secondary market declined slightly by 1bp to 0.4%.
Activities at the Treasury bonds secondary market were bearish, as average yield contracted slightly by 12bps to 5.0%. Across the curve, average yield expanded at the short (+9bps), mid (+34bps) and long (+2bps) segments, due to profit-taking on the MAR-2024 (+63bps), APR-2029 (+75bps) and JUL-2034 (+11bps) bonds, respectively.
Currency
The naira weakened by 0.2% and 0.2% to NGN394.67/USD and NGN476.00/USD at the I&E window and parallel market, respectively.
Equities
The domestic equities market sustained positive trading, following buying interests in NESTLE (+7.5%), ZENITHBANK (+2.6%) and GUARANTY (+1.2%) stocks. As a result, the NSE ASI increased by 0.8% to 35,493.15 points. Consequently, Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date gain increased to 1.3% and 32.2%, respectively.
The total volume of trades increased by 146.2% to 650.55 million units, valued at NGN2.29 billion, and exchanged in 3,952 deals. JAIZBANK was the most traded stock by volume at 414.98 million units, while ZENITHBANK was the most traded stock by value at NGN472.71 million.
Sectoral performance was mixed, following gains in the Consumer Goods (+3.8%), Banking (+1.9%) and Insurance (+1.6%) indices, and declines in the Oil & Gas (-0.3%) and Industrial Goods (-0.2%) indices.
Market sentiment, as measured by market breadth, was positive (1.9x), as 25 tickers gained, relative to 13 losers. MANSARD (+10.0%) and MAYBAKER (+9.9%) recorded the largest gains of the day, while CORNERST (-8.3%) and LINKASSURE (-8.2%) topped the losers’ list.-With Cordros Research
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