The Nigerian stock market slipped deeper into the red zone as investors remained cautious, partly due to profit warning releases from the banking sector – from First City Monument Bank, Diamond Bank, and more recently, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated. The bears were unrelenting despite positive corporate actions from top tier banks such as Guaranty Trust Bank, United Bank for Africa and Zenith Bank.
Gainers & Losers
Leading building materials manufacturer, Dangote Cement, gained N2 to close at N164 a share. However, shares of upstream oil & gas players, Seplat and Oando, tumbled by N1 and N0.51 to close at N350 and N4.82 respectively.
Market News:
Zenith Bank Plc (FY December 2015)
Top tier deposit money bank, Zenith Bank Plc, posted a 7.24% year-on- year increase in gross earnings to N432.54 billion while profit after tax rose by 6.24% to N105.66 billion. The bank proposed a cash dividend of N1.55 per share which yielded 12.08% based on Tuesday’s closing price of N12.83 a share.
Profit Warning: Ecobank Transnational Incorporated Plc (FY December 2015) The pan-African financial services provider issued a profit warning stating that profit for the 2015 finanical year is expected to be materially lower than the profit in preceding year. This was attributed to macroeconomic challenges, monetary and fiscal bottlenecks, and higher impairment losses on loans.
Interbank Money Market
Nigerian interbank lending rates rose for all tenor buckets on financial system liquidity strain. NIBOR for overnight funds, 1 month, 3 months and 6 months tenors rose to 7.51%, 9.49%, 10.72% and 11.87% respectively. Nigerian Interbank Treasury bills True Yields increased for all maturities amid sustained sell pressure – yields on the 1 month, 3 months, 6 months and 12 months bills rose to 6.76%, 7.07%, 7.66% and 9.46% respectively.
FGN Bond Market – OTC NG
At the OTC market FGN bond prices continued to plunged on sell pressure. The 20-year, 10% FGN JUL 2030 bond, the 10-year, 16.39% FGN JAN 2022 debt and the 7-year 16.00% FGN JUN 2019 bond lost N0.72, N0.61 and N0.80 respectively while yields rose to 12.07, 11.65% and 10.64%.
source: cowry asset