What happened last week
Macro economy
- The National Assembly once again brought up the issue of the autonomy of the CBN. The Senate wants to amend the CBN act to allow it separate the position of the Chairman of the Board of CBN from the Governor. Currently, the CBN Governor is also the Chairman of the board.
- They also want oversight on the remuneration of the CBN as well as have the CBN report to the Senate, periodically, on the state of the economy. The bill passed its second reading and has now being sent to the Senate Committee on Banking for public hearing. Chances of this bill being passed are quite slim.
- Nigeria’s external reserves remained strong at $41.8 billion last week
- The exchange rate closed at N360.7/$1 last week according to data from the FMDQOTC
- The Power sector recorded about 6 system collapses in the month of January
Markets
- The CBN announced last week that deposit money banks that did not meet the regulatory requirements or capital adequacy ratios may not pay dividends this year or may have restrictions on how much dividend they may pay. This affected banking stocks setting of a sell off. However the banking index recovered to close positively at the end of the week.
- The Nigerian Stock Market closed the week in negative territory, closing at -0.16%. They All Share Index is currently down 4% month to date but up 11% year to date.
- Total Nigeria Plc was the early flier, releasing its 2017 FY results. The oil giant reported a profit after tax of N8 billion, 46% down from the N14.7 billion reported a year earlier. Earnings per share was N23.6 also 46% down.
- They however declared dividends of N14 per share, taking their total dividend for the year to N17.
- The Debt Management Office announced the results of the $2.5 billion Eurobond offer. The offer was oversubscribed by over 4 folds and was most bought by investors in the United States and the United Kingdom.
- With this successful sale, Nigeria’s external debt stock should be closer to $18 billion. It was $15.3 billion as at November 2017. Total External debt services was about $198 million per quarter as at the end of third quarter of 2017.
- We heard news that American Private Equity firm, Milost Global could be on the line to acquire a Nigerian Bank. The bank is thought to be Unity Bank. Milost announced a deal to invest about $350 million in Japaul. Japaul stock gained 16% during the week to close at 42 kobo
- Livestock Feeds toped the gainers list, gaining 19% to close at N1.19 per share
What could happen this week
Macro-economy
- The National Bureau of Statistics is expected to release its Gross Domestic Products report for the 4th quarter of 2017 and the full year 2017.
- The report is set to be released on Tuesday, 27th of February 2018. We expect this report to dominate economic discourse this week.
- March is here and we are still nowhere close to passing the 2018 budget.
- As far as we know, there is expected to be a budget review session with the downstream arm of the petroleum sector between the 28th of Feb and March 1 2018. The session is before the joint committee on Petroleum downstream.
Equities
- We are officially into the earnings season, so we expect to see more results being announced.
- We expect an overall improved profitability across diverse sectors and the NSE 30 stocks will dominate.
- All eyes will be on the banking and oil and gas sectors. We will also have one eyes on Insurance stocks as well as the Dangote Companies.
- This could be another start of positive investor sentiments in the market and we won’t be surprised to see stocks rally again.
Bonds
- The Central Bank is scheduled to auction treasury bills on the 1st of March 2018. This is based on their treasury bills calendar for the first quarter of 2018.
- They plan to raise about N7.8b, N30b and N222b in 91 days, 182 days and 364 days treasury bills respectively.
- Last time treasury bills were sold, interest rates went for 11.9%, 13.65% and 13.7% for 91 days, 182 days and 364 days treasury bills respectively. The days of 17% treasury bills rate seem well and over.
