Market at Noon: MTN Nigeria drives Thursday’s mid-day rally on NGX

BY: CHARLES ABUEDE

It is a decent trade midday Thursday on the heels of another blockbuster trade in MTN Nigeria, which has seen the local bourse lock in gains up to four basis points, on a day that the bourse has locked in N5.24 billion worth of deals, while trade volume is just shy of 100 million units.

The index has been flat while investor sentiments have slightly been reinforced, while there are net offers in most names, some speculators have decided to pull back their aggressive stance.

According to analysts at CardinalStone Securities, “The flow pad remains dusty, both local and foreign institutions are biding their time and mostly speculative actors [are] active at this time.”

In dissecting the day’s event, CardinalStone Securities analysts report that MTN Nigeria has been the most active stock today, on the heels of a 20 million cross.

“We note that the same party has been behind the series of block trades that has printed over the course of the last two weeks (20mn crossed three times). 92 million units have traded since institutions were credited for their Bookbuild bids. Locals have been at the heart of these deals, though we have also seen some offshore bids floating around.

“As expected, Seplat Nigeria is net-offered in Lagos, and the only block deal that has gone through at a 3 percent discount to current repatriation rate is getting pricey: N684 per dollar. The bellwether banks have slipped slightly; UBA Nigeria has led the losers chart, dropping 2 percent, and followed by Zenith Bank, GTCO, First Bank Holding which have all dropped points, only Access Bank has escaped the bears.

“It was a very poor outing for the NGX Group, as the ticker has slipped 10 percent today (actually on full offer right now), locals were not impressed with the Firm’s decision not to pay out dividends. In Ardova Plc, the downstream player has slipped 4 percent, while Honeywell Flour has also dropped 6 percent on the heels of speculative pressure. We expect a quiet end to the session,” traders report.

Fixed-Income
Driving into the fixed income space, it is a quiet day as most big buyers stay on the sidelines.

“We are seeing improved bids on the long end of the curve while yields are largely flat around the short end and belly of the curve. Value traded is N4 billion with most flows on the 45s. For bills, yields are stable as buyers take their bids to today’s OMO auction. Value traded is N11 billion with February NTBs being the most traded.” They reported.