WED 24 FEB, 2021-theGBJournal- The domestic equities market ended the day with bullish sentiments, following investors’ interests in WAPCO (+3.5%), ZENITHBANK (+1.2%) and GUARANTY (+1.0%) stocks. Consequently, the NSE ASI advanced by 0.1% to 40,221.30 points. Accordingly, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date losses moderated to -5.2% and -0.1%, respectively.
The total volume traded increased by 38.9% to 469.56 million units, valued at NGN7.08 billion, and exchanged in 5,470 deals. ZENITHBANK was the most traded stock by volume and value at 154.62 million units and NGN4.10 billion, respectively.
On sectors, the Oil & Gas (+0.8%), Banking (+0.8%), and Industrial Goods (+0.2%) indices recorded gains, while the Insurance (-1.9%) and Consumer Goods (-0.3%) indices declined.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative (1.0x), as 19 tickers declined, relative to 20 gainers. LASACO (-9.5%) and CHIPLC (-8.3%) topped the losers’ list, while OANDO (+10.0%) and ABCTRANS (+9.4%) recorded the largest gains of the day.
Currency
The naira weakened by 0.1% to NGN408.80/USD at the I&E window but stayed flat at NGN480.00/USD in the parallel market.
Money Market & Fixed Income
The overnight lending rate declined by 17bps to 1.8%, in the absence of any significant funding pressures on the system.
The NTB secondary market remained mixed, as market participants positioned for the renewed supply at today’s primary auction. Thus, the average yield stayed flat at 1.5%. The average yield contracted by 8bps to 6.1% at the OMO secondary market.
Activities at the Treasury bonds secondary market remained bullish, as average yield declined by 32bps to 9.0%. Across the curve, average yield contracted at the short (-80bps), and long (-11bps) ends, following buying interest in the MAR-2025 (-203bps) and APR-2037 (-25bps) bonds, respectively. Conversely, the average yield at the mid (+3bps) segment increased due to profit-taking on the MAR-2027 (+15bps) bond.-With Cordros Research
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