WED, MARCH 11 2020-theG&BJournal- Sentiments remained weak in the domestic equities market as investors sell-off of bellwether stock (DANGCEM, NESTLE, and ZENITHBANK) dampened market performance. Consequently, the All-Share Index plummeted by 3.4% to 23,572.75 points, to settle the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date losses at -10.1% and -12.2%, respectively.
The total volume of trades increased by 134.0% to 1.39 billion units, valued at NGN17.65 billion and exchanged in 7,150 deals. ZENITHBANK was the most traded stock by volume at 412.41 million units while GUARANTY was the most traded stock by value at NGN7.24 billion respectively.
All sector indices recorded declines save for the Insurance (+2.2%) index, as the Consumer Goods (-4.7%), Industrial Goods (-3.4%), Banking (-2.7%), and Oil & Gas (-0.7) indices declined.
Market sentiment, as measured by market breadth, remained negative (0.9x), as 20 tickers lost, relative to 18 gainers. NESTLE (-10.0%) and DANGCEM (-10.0%) were the top losers, while CHAMS (+10.0%) and COURTVILLE (+10.0%) led the gainers.
CURRENCY
The naira depreciated by 1.4% to NGN367.00/USD in the parallel market and by 0.4% to NGN366.71/USD at the I&E FX window.
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate contracted by 57bps to 13.8% in the absence of any significant outflows from the system.
Trading in the NTB secondary market was quiet as investors shifted focus towards today’s NTB PMA. However, average yield expanded in the OMO secondary market by 34bps to 15.2% as foreign investors continued to sell-off short-dated instruments. At today’s NTB primary auction, the CBN fully allotted NGN86.30 billion worth of bills – NGN1.80 billion of the 91-day, NGN14.00 billion of the 182-day and NGN70.50 billion of the 364-day – at respective stop rates of 2.49% (previously 3.00%), 3.78% (previously 4.00%), and 5.30% (previously 5.70%).
The Treasury bond secondary market traded bearish, as average yield expanded by 47bps to 11.2%. Across the curve, yields expanded at the short (+60bps), mid (+68bps) and long (+4bps) segment, following selloffs of the JAN-2022 (+213bps), APR-2029 (+187bps) and APR-2049 (+32bps) bonds, respectively.- With Cordros Research
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