The Nigerian equity market bounced back to the green turf last week with its All Share Index (ASI) topping 1.3 per cent. This is as the foreign exchange (forex) saw the naira slump 300 kobo to close at N485 to the dollar.
Last week, the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE)recorded gains on all trading sessions as investors cherry-picked bellwether stocks on the back of impressive in the first quarter of 2021 earnings release.
Consequently, the NSE All-Share Index was up 1.3 per cent week-week ( w/w) with the Year-to-Date (YTD) loss improving to -2.4 per cent as market capitalisation increased to N20.6 trillion.
Activity level strengthened as average volume and value traded advanced 26.9% and 291.7 per cent to 287.0 million units and N3.0 billion respectively. FIDELITY (266.8 million units), MTNN (182.6 million units) and FBNH (89.9 million units) were the top traded stocks by volume while MTNN (N29.8 billion), GUARANTY (N2.6 billion), and ZENITH (N1.9 billion) led by value.
In the foreign exchange (forex) market, the naira depreciated by 300 kobo or N3.00 w/w to N485.0/$ at the parallel market. It however traded flat at Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) spot to settle at N379.0/$ w/w. In the Importers’ and Exporters’ (I&E) window, the naira appreciated by ₦1.00 w/w to N410.0/$. Activity level in I&E window rose by 29.7 per cent to N378.9 million from N292.2 million in the previous week.
Last week, fresh lockdown across India and Asia at large ignited some oil demand concerns in the market. Consequently, oil prices decreased mildly by 1bp w/w to close at $65.91/bbl. On the domestic front, external reserves declined by 0.1 per cent w/w to $35.0 billion.
In the money market, the Open Buy Back (OBB) and Overnight (OVN) rates declined w/w due to changes in system liquidity attributable to Open Market Operation (OMO) repayments in the system. System liquidity significantly fell at the start of the week from a surplus of N599.3 billion in the prior week to N109.7 billion on Monday before settling at a deficit of ₦259.2bn on Friday. Resultantly, the OBB and OVN closed the week lower, down 9.1ppts and 11.6ppts to settle at 15.9 per cent and 16.8 per cent respectively relative to 25.0 per cent and 28.3 per cent on the preceding Friday.
