Nigeria equities open week bearish as index goes red

By Charles Abuede

The Nigerian equities market closed on a negative note on the opening day of the week’s trading as sell-offs in Zenith Bank, Transnational Corporation, FBN Holdings, UBA and Access Bank dragged the market performance with the All-Share Index (ASI) declining by 0.75 per cent to close at 34,774.08 points, while the market cap of equities listed on the NSE declined to N18.17 trillion from N18.308 trillion that it closed on Friday; and the year to date return in the market stood at 29.6 per cent.

The market activity on the trading floor on the decline as the total volume traded closed with an exchange of 668.5 million units valued at N7.85 billion traded in 10,319 deals. Similarly, Zenith Bank (94.03million), Transnational Corporation (75.48million), FBN Holdings (65.2million), UBA (60.1million) and Access Bank led the trades by volume while Zenith Bank (N2.50billion), GTB (N1.15billion), Dangote Cement (N626.65million), UBA (N524.52million) and FBN Holdings (N499.29million) led the trades by value. Meanwhile, the market breadth was negative with 11 gainers as against 43 losers due to waning sentiments of investors.

The NSE 30

The NSE 30 Index decreased by 0.97 per cent to close at 1,494.79 points as against 1,509.40 points last Friday. Market turnover closed with a traded volume of 421.12 million units. BUA Cement was the only gainer, while Dangote Sugar and Fidelity Bank were the key losers.

Foreign Exchange market

The Nigerian naira sold for N475 per dollar on the Lagos Street market on Monday while at the Importers’ &Exporters’ FX market, the naira remained stable at N386 to one United States’ dollar. Most participants maintained bids of between N380.00 and N386.00 per dollar. The CBN official window saw the local currency traded at N379 to a dollar.

Treasury Bills

The NT-Bills secondary market closed on a flat note, with the average yield across the curve remaining unchanged at 0.11 per cent. Average yields across short-term, medium-term, and long-term maturities closed at 0.06 per cent, 0.09 per cent, and 0.15 per cent, respectively.

In the OMO bills market, buying interest was seen across medium-term and long-term maturities the average yield across the curve declined by 7 basis points to close at 0.13 per cent as against the last close of 0.20 per cent, and average yields falling by 15 basis points and 11 basis points, respectively, while average yield across short-term maturities remained unchanged. Yields on 13 bills declined with the 30-Mar-21 maturity bill recording the highest yield decline of 24 basis points, while yields on 12 bills remained unchanged.

The Bond Market

The FGN bonds secondary market closed on a positive note Monday, as the average bond yield across the curve cleared lower by 2 basis points to close at 1.72 per cent from 1.74 per cent last Friday. Average yield across short tenor of the curve fell by 3 basis points, while average yield across long tenor increased by 1 basis point. Average yield across medium tenor of the curve remained unchanged. The 27-MAR-2050 bond was the best performer with a decline in yield of 10 basis points, while the 18-JUL-2034 bond was the worst performer with an increase in yield of 15 basis points.

Meanwhile, at the FGN saving bond auction for November 2020, the DMO allotted bonds worth N323.55 million across the 2-year (N27.92 million) and 3-year (N295.63 million) tenors at coupon rates of 1.759 per cent (-69 bps) and 2.759 per cent (-69 bps), respectively. Allotment for 2-year bond declined by 4.13 per cent as compared to N29.12 million allotted in the last auction, while allotment for 3-year bond increased significantly by 101 per cent versus N147.08 million allotted in the previous auction.