…Naira depreciates at the I&E window
THUR 20 MAY, 2021-theGBJournal-The domestic equities market traded with bearish sentiments for the fourth straight session, as sell-offs in DANGCEM (-1.9%) weighed down the bourse. Consequently, the ASI shed 0.3% to close at 38,328.13 points. The Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date losses increased to -3.8% and -4.8%, respectively.
The total volume of trades increased by 2.4% to 157.26 million units, valued at NGN1.74 billion, and exchanged in 2,824 deals. ZENITHBANK was the most traded stock by volume and value at 27.57 million units and NGN634.19 million, respectively.
Analysing by sectors, the Consumer Goods (+0.4%), Insurance (+0.4%), and Oil & Gas (+0.1%) indices recorded gains, while the Industrial Goods (-0.9%) and Banking (-0.1%) indices declined.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive (1.1x), as 18 tickers gained relative to 17 losers. TRANSEXPR (+9.9%) and PRESTIGE (+6.5%) were the top gainers of the day, while ROYALEX (-9.3%) and REGALINS (-8.1%) recorded the most significant losses of the day.
Currency
The naira depreciated at the I&E window by 0.1% to NGN411.31/USD but traded flat at NGN484.00/USD in the parallel market.
Money Market & Fixed Income
The overnight lending rate expanded by 25bps to 15.3%, as outflows for CBN’s weekly OMO auction outweighed inflows from the FGN Bond coupon payment (NGN8.45 billion).
The NTB secondary market was mixed, as the average yield stayed flat at 5.5%. Similarly, the OMO segment’s average yield was flat at 9.2%.
Trading in the Treasury bond secondary market ended on a bearish note, as the average yield expanded by 2bps to 12.2%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield was flat at the short and mid segments but expanded at the long (+5bps) end due to sell-offs of the APR-2049 (+12bps) bond.
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