Trading Day report

Trading in the Nigerian equities market turned sour as investors took profit on previous gains dragging the ASI down by 354.48pts at the close of trade. Although the index opened on a positive note, the benchmark index was dragged down by heavily weighted stock like GUARANTY TRUST BANK (-77pts), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-52pts) and FORTE OIL (-51pts). Also, market capitalization declined by N121.9bn to settle at N10.27trn. Activity level trimmed as both volume and value of trades declined by -53.1% and -39.4% respectively. In today’s session, a total of 439 million units of shares valued at N4.53 billion were consummated. ZENITHBANK, SKYEBANK and UBA were the most traded stocks, while transactions on Banking names (83% of market turnover) accounted for the bulk of trades on the floor Negative sentiments were prominent in all sectoral trackers. The Oil & Gas tracker led the laggards, shedding -4.00% as OANDO (-4.97%) and FO (-5.00%) declined. In the same manner, Banking stocks; GUARANTY (-3.35%) and ETI (-2.23%) depressed the Financial tracker into its -1.67% close. The Consumers and Industrials also closed in the red as NB (-1.65%) and WAPCO (-1.94%) lost momentum. CUTIX (+9.93%) emerged as the top gainer in today's session while DANGSUGAR (-9.16%) declined the most. In all, market sentiment returned to the negative terrain with 12 advancers and 37 losers. In the currency market, the Naira appreciated against the basket of foreign currencies, supported by inflows from the oil sector. The Naira strengthened mildly by 0.03% to close at N199.00/$. Similarly, the local currency firmed relative to the European currencies, appreciating 1.29% and 1.10% relative to the Pound Sterling and Euro to settle at N301.17/£ and N221.46/€ respectively. The OPEC reference price for Brent crude remains at sub $50 levels while the Foreign reserves as reported by the CBN eased mildly by 0.44% to $31.32bn. Lending rates at the interbank market contracted mildly by 3bps to average 14.94% as system liquidity remained at N200bn. The overnight and 90-day rates closed 20bps lower, while the 30-day and 180-day NIBOR added 25bps and 8bps each to close at 15.66% and 18.13% respectively. An ( Open market operation)OMO auction worth N50bn was announced today (same amount offered on Friday and Monday). Similar to the previous auctions, no sales were executed. Interest in the bonds market was muted as average yield once again settled at its previous close (15.59%). Similarly, there was muted interest in the benchmark bonds. As a result, yields on the 5-yr, 7-yr and 10-yr bonds remained at previous level.