THUR, FEB 13 2020-theG&BJournal-The Nigerian equities market was on the verge of closing positive, but investor’s sell-off of MTNN (-3.33%) stock led to a marginal decline in the ASI index by 0.05% to 27,864.84 points.
Consequently, the Month-to-date loss increased to 3.39%, while the Year-to-Date gain moderated to 3.81%.
Similarly, the total volume of trades decreased by 1.10% to 150.7 million units, valued at NGN2.8 billion and exchanged in 3,198 deals. ZENITHBANK was the most traded stock by volume at 25.4 million units, while MTNN was the most traded stock by value at NGN792.6 million.
Analysing by sectors, the banking (+2.09%), industrial (+0.79%) and Consumer Goods (+0.09%) indices advanced, while the Insurance (-1.77%) index declined. The Oil & Gas index remained flat.
Market sentiment, as measured by market breadth, was flat (1.0x), as 13 tickers declined, relative to 13 gainers. LAWUNION (-9.84%) and JAPAULOIL (-8.33%) recorded the largest declines, while UCAP (+10.00%) and LEARNAFRICA (+9.73%) topped the gainer’s list.
CURRENCY
The naira traded flat against the US dollar at NGN360.00/USD in the parallel market, while it weakened by 0.01% to NGN364.92/USD at the I&E FX window.
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate contracted by 12.56ppts to 3.36% as system liquidity – estimated at NGN1.2 trillion – increased following inflows from OMO maturities, NTB maturities, FGN bond maturities, and FGN coupon payments.
Trading in the NTB secondary market was bullish as market players covered for lost bids from the NTB auction. Consequently, average yield pared by 4bps to 3.99%. Yields contracted at the mid (-9bps) and long (-5bps) segments, following buying interests in the 168DTM (-36bps) and 196DTM (-20bps) instruments, respectively. However, the short end was flat. In the same vein, the average yield contracted by 15bps to 13.31% in the OMO secondary market.
Activities in the Treasury bonds market sustained its bullish stance, as average yield contracted by 8bps to 10.17%. Yields contracted at the short (-8bps) and mid (-13bps) segments of the curve, following investors’ interests in the JUL-2021 (-39bps) and FEB-2028 (-19bps) bonds respectively. Conversely, the long (+1bp) end recorded a marginal expansion, induced by the sell-off of the MAR-2036 (+5bps) bond.-Courtesy Cordros Securities
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