NSE Records Worst Loss in Almost a Decade, as ASI Tanks by 4.91% amid Panic Sell-Offs on Banking Stocks

March 10, 2020/InvestmentOne Report

Please click to download the Market Report for Tuesday 10^th March 2020

EQUITY:

·             The Nigerian equities market closed negative today as NSE-ASI lost 4.91% to close at 24,388.66pts.

·             In today’s trade, market breadth index was strongly negative with 33 losers against 3 gainers.

·             Today’s performances were mainly due to the losses recorded in NASCON (-10.00%), DANGSUGAR (-10.00%), FIDELITYBK (-10.00%), MTNN (-10.00%) and STANBIC (-10.00%) which offset the gains recorded in NEIMETH (+10.00%), HONYFLOUR (+3.45%) and NEM (+1.16%).

·             Sector performances were broadly negative today as Banking (-12.53%), Consumer Goods (-4.42%), Industrial (-1.10%) and Oil & Gas (-0.93%) indices closed in the red.

·             In terms of activity levels, total volume and value rose by 220% and 131% respectively compared to yesterday as investors exchanged over 595million units of shares worth over N4.21billion. UBA (-9.60%) was the most actively traded stock with about 166million units of shares worth about N943million.

·             The equities market closed down today due to the losses recorded in all sectors and MTNN (-10.00%). While we believe the risk-off sentiment on the back of weak oil price as well as the impact of Coronavirus could have caused the recent sell-off in the market, we opine that this may be one of the best periods to start picking some of the quality names with a medium to long term horizon.

CURRENCY:

·         At the IEFX window, while the Naira gained 1.02% and 0.33% against GBP and EUR to close at N476.44 and N417.38 respectively, it lost 0.01% against USD to close at N366.75.

·         At the parallel market, the Naira lost 0.56%, 0.64% and 1.26% against USD, GBP and EUR to close at  N362, N475 and N403 respectively.

·         Going forward, we expect the FX market to continue to see support from CBN’s intervention sales.

FIXED INCOME:

·         Money market rates declined today as Open Buy Back and Overnight rates fell by 170bps and 202bps to close at 13.80% and 14.40% respectively. The reduction in rates may be as a result of refunds from FX bids which may have improved system liquidity.

·         The bond market was broadly flat today as yields remained unchanged across most tenors. As such, while the yields on the 7yr and 10yr benchmark bonds remained flat to close at 12.80% and 10.81% respectively, it lost 50bps on the 5yr benchmark bond to close at 9.53%.

·         In the near term, we expect market activity to be influenced by liquidity levels and foreign investor participation.

Below are key NSE statistics as at the end of trades: