Standings at Nigerian Stock Exchange on Monday, February 12, 2018
EQUITIES
The domestic bourse closed negative for the sixth consecutive session, with the ASI declining by 0.90% to 42,737.89 points, following profit taking across most sectors.
Accordingly, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns moderated further to -3.62% and 11.75% respectively.
The Banking (-3.80%) index led the losers, followed by the Insurance (-1.05%), Consumer Goods (-0.95%), Industrial Goods (-0.37%), and Oil & Gas (-0.16%) indices respectively, as investors took profit in the shares of FBNH (-5.00%), AIICO (-8.22%), DANGSUGAR (-4.83%), WAPCO (-3.85%), and ETERNA (-9.67%) respectively.
Market breadth was negative, with 36 losers and 13 gainers led by ETERNA (-9.67%) and PZ (+5.83%) respectively. Total volume traded decreased by 6.33% to 517.4 million units, valued at NGN5.19 billion, and exchanged in 5,852 deals.
Despite continued sell-offs, we think softening prices increases the likelihood for bargain hunting amid strengthening macroeconomic fundamental.
CURRENCY
The USD/NGN remained flat at NGN363 in the parallel market, while it strengthened by 0.05% to NGN360.10 in the I&E FX window. Total volume traded in the I&E FX window declined by 7.61% to USD158.00 million, exchanged within the range of NGN324.50 to NGN361.50.
FIXED INCOME AND MONEY MARKET
The overnight lending rate dropped by 2,550 bps to 20%, against Friday’s close of 45.50%, following inflow of FX refunds, as well as anticipation of coupon payment on the FEB-2020 bond tomorrow worth NGN47.12 billion.
Average yield expanded marginally by less than 1 bp to 14.43% in the NTB market, as yield expansion at the short (+6 bps) end of the curve outweighed contraction at the mid (-3 bps) and long (-1 bp) segments. Notable bills include the 80DTM (+72 bps) bill, 94DTM (-58 bps), and 241DTM (-19 bps) respectively.
Conversely, activities turned bullish in the bond market, as average yield declined marginally by 1 bp to 13.77%. Yields fell across all ends of the curve – short (-1 bp), mid (less than 1 bp), and long (-1 bp) – driven by demands for the JUN-2019 (-1 bp), FEB-2020 (less than 1 bp), and MAR-2027 (-3 bps) bonds respectively.
