MON 08 MARCH, 2021-theGBJournal- The local bourse started the week on a positive note, with the market snapping four-day consecutive days of decline, as the NSE advanced by 0.2% to 39,396.57 points. The performance was buoyed by investors’ interests in WAPCO (+7.7%) and some tier 1 banking stocks – FBNH (+2.8%) and ACCESS (+2.6%). Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date losses moderated to -1.0% and -2.2%, respectively.
The total volume traded declined by 49.4% to 297.27 million units, valued at NGN3.15 billion, and exchanged in 4,655 deals. ZENITHBANK was the most traded stock by volume and value at 66.50 million units and NGN1.67 billion, respectively.
Performance across sectors was broadly positive, following gains across the Insurance (+1.3%), Oil & Gas (+1.0%) and Industrial Goods (+0.5%) indices. The Consumer Goods (-0.1%) index was the lone loser while the Banking index closed flat.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment turned positive (1.7x), as 24 tickers gained, relative to 14 losers. LINKASSURE (+10.0%) and ARDOVA (+10.0%) recorded the largest gains of the day, while MEYER (-10.0%) and LIVESTOCK (-9.9%) topped the losers’ list.
Currency
The naira weakened by 0.2% to NGN411.88/USD at the I&E window and by 0.4% to NGN482.00/USD in the parallel market.
Money market & Fixed Income
The overnight lending rate fell by 458bps to 11.8%, in the absence of any significant funding pressure on the system.
The NTB secondary market was bearish, as the average yield expanded by 31bps to 2.1%. Across the curve, average yield declined at the short (-8bps) and mid (-1bp) segments due to demand for the 94DTM (-8bps) and 115DTM (-1bp) instruments, respectively. Conversely, average yield expanded at the long (+66bps) end as market participants sold off the 325DTM (+173bps) instrument.
Proceedings at the Treasury bonds secondary market was also bearish, as the average yield in the space expanded by 7bps to 9.3%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield was higher at the short (+21bps) end, following profit-taking on the JAN-2022 (+137bps) bond. The average yield was flat at the mid and long segments.
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