Profit taking: Nigerian bourse down 0.26% Monday

Nigeria’s equities market started the week on a bearish note as investors took profit from the ASI’s recent gains due partly to the renewed appetite for Naira assets by foreign investors. Evidently, the benchmark index shed 0.26 per cent to 31,344.24 points.
Against that backdrop, the Month-to-Date loss increase slightly to 0.27 per cent.

On sectorial performance, all sector indices – save for the Industrial (+0.01%) index – closed negative, with the Insurance (-1.14%) index leading the pack, followed closely by the Banking (-0.50%), Oil & Gas (-0.40%), and Consumer Goods (-0.17%) indices. Notable stocks include BETAGLAS (+1.18%), AIICO (-5.63%), UBA (-4.55%), SEPLAT (-3.70%), and DANGSUGA (-1.38%).
Market breadth was negative with 29 losers and 10 gainers, led by BERGER (-9.68%) and NPFMCRFBK (+9.59%) stocks respectively. Meanwhile, total volume declined sharply by 46.6% to 222.69 million units, valued at NGN1.84 billion respectively, and exchanged in 4,150 deals.
“Our outlook for equities in the near-to-medium term remains conservative, in the absence of a near term positive catalyst and amidst brewing political concerns” ,analysts at Cordros Capital said.
In the currency market, the USD/NGN depreciated by 0.08 per cent to NGN362.75 at the I&E FX window, but appreciated by 0.28 per cent to NGN363.00 in the parallel market.
Total turnover in the IEW increased significantly by 61.6 per cent to USD283.36 million, with trades executed within the NGN330.00-364.00/USD band.
The fixed income and money market had the overnight lending rate expanded sharply by 431 bps to 17.31 per cent, from 13.00 per cent in the previous session, following the tight system’s liquidity necessitated by the CBN’s OMO mop up wherein NGN56.90 billion – NGN2.33 billion of the 87DTM, NGN6.27 billion of the 192DTM, and NGN48.30 billion of the 360DTM bill – worth of bills were sold at respective stop rates of 11.90 per cent, 13.50 per cent and 15.00 per cent.
Proceedings in the treasury bills market started the week on a bearish note, as average yield jumped sharply by 67 bps to 14.19 per cent. Sell pressure was evident across the curve – short (+24 bps), the mid (+33bps bps) and long (+39 bps)–. Notable instruments include, the 24DTM (+53bps) bill, 101DTM (+94 bps) and 185DTM (+57 bps) respectively.
As with the treasury bills market, proceedings in the bond market were bearish, as average yield notched higher by 6 bps to 15.21 per cent. Sell pressure was concentrated at the short (+11 bps) segment, with investors dumping the JAN-2020 (+63 bps) paper. Conversely, yield contracted at the mid (-7 bps) and long (-9 bps) segment, following interest in the FEB-2028 (-15 bps) and the NOV-2028 (-14 bps).