Bears open week as equities down N29bn; but yields rise in money market T-Bills trading

By Omobayo Azeez

The equities and treasury bills segments of the Nigerian capital market were both ruled by the bears as another weekly trade commenced on Monday, leaving the former with N29 billion loss while the latter recorded 18bps increase in average yield.

As the bears continued to dominate the domestic equities market, the NSE All Share Index (NSEASI) depreciated by 0.22 per cent to close at 26,390.08 points, worsening its Year-to-Date (YTD) returns to stands at -16.04 per cent.

Similarly, total valuation of equities quoted on the nation’s bourse closed lower at N12.847 trillion after shedding N29 billion in the day’s trading.

In the same vein, the total volume of trades decreased by 20.84 per cent to 245.85 million, valued at N1.36 billion and exchanged in 2,514 deals.

While FIDELITY was the most traded stock by volume at 25.42 million units, GUARANTY was the most traded by value at N357.80 million.

Losses were evident across all sectors, with the exception of the Oil & Gas sector which closed flat. The Insurance index shed 1.44 per cent, Banking index lost 0.45 per cent, Industrial Goods index declined by 0.28 per cent and Consumer goods index fell marginally by 0.01 per cent.

Market sentiment, as measured by market breadth, was negative as nine tickers recorded gains relative to 14 losers.

The gaining team, in order of appearance, was led by Maybaker, gaining N0.19 to close at N2.19 per share; ETI followed by gaining N0.07 to close at N0.84 per share and TRANSEXPR advanced by N0.04 to close the day at N0.84 per share.

Other advancers include LAWUNION which gained N0.04 and CONERST which added N0.03 to its share price to close at N0.51and N0.35 per share respectively.

On the flip side, Dangote Cement lost N1 to close at N144. Zenith Bank shed N0.25 to close at N17.20 per share and NEM shed N0.22 to close at N2.08 per share.

Other decliners are UBA and Access Bank plc, both losing N0.05 to close at N5.70 and N7.30 per share respectively.

Meanwhile, in the money market, the overnight lending rate widened by 193bps to 7.79%, following the Central bank of Nigeria’s (CBN’s) liquidity mop-up via an open market option (OMO) auction held during the day.

At the day’s auction, the CBN sold instruments worth N270.34 billion which included  N2.65 billion 185-day and N267.69 billion 353-day tenors bills at respective stop rates of 11.79 per cent and 13.35 per cent, with both standing at the same rate as previous auctions.

Activities in the treasury bills market were bearish as the average yield increased by 18 basis points (bps) to 12.61 per cent.

Yields expanded across the short (+16bps), mid (+20bps) and long (+17bps) segments of the curve, following investors’ sell-offs of the 17-day tenor, (+57bps), 164-day tenor (+97 bps) and 297-day tenor (+70bps) instruments.

Trading in the treasury bonds market was mixed, albeit with a bullish tilt, as the average yield declined by 1bp to 14.10 per cent. Yields contracted across the short (-1bps) and long (-6bps) segments of the curve, following investors’ buying interest in the JUL-2021 (-15bps) and MAR-2036 (-12bps) bonds.

Conversely, the average yield expanded at the mid (+3bps) segment of the curve following investor sell-offs of the MAR-2027 (+10bps) bond.