Nigerian Markets Last Week: Historic Trading Day on Nigerian Bourse, Pfizer Vaccine Success Lifts Oil

The Nigerian Markets Last Week for the week ended November 13, 2020.

Stock Market

The Nigerian Stock Exchange All-Share Index and Market Capitalization both appreciated by 12.97% to close the week at 35,037.46 and ₦18.308 trillion respectively. Similarly, all other indices finished higher while the NSE ASeM Index closed flat.

It was a historic trading week as the benchmark index posted its largest daily gain in more than five years on Thursday, November 12, 2020. The ASI rose beyond the set threshold of 5%, triggering a 30-minute trading halt of all stocks for the first time since the Circuit Breaker was introduced in 2016.

Top price gainers and decliners in the week under review:

Top price gainers

Companies	Gain (₦)	% Change
Oando Plc	1.30	48.15
Japaul Oil & Maritime Services Plc	0.10	43.48
N Nig. Flour Mills Plc.	2.20	40.00
Livestock Feeds Plc.	0.39	36.79
Fidson Healthcare Plc	1.60	36.53
Transnational Corporation Of Nigeria Plc	0.30	35.29
Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc	5.70	34.55
Neimeth Int’l Pharmaceuticals Plc	0.67	33.50
Wema Bank Plc.	0.20	31.25
Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc.	0.06	30.00

Top price decliners

Companies	Loss (₦)	% Change
Ikeja Hotel Plc	-0.11	-9.91
Global Spectrum Energy Services Plc	-0.46	-9.89
Morison Industries Plc.	-0.05	-9.26
Consolidated Hallmark Insurance Plc	-0.03	-8.11
Cap Plc	-0.85	-3.70
Lasaco Assurance Plc.	-0.01	-2.78
Aiico Insurance Plc	-0.02	-2.17
Portland Paints & Products Nigeria Plc	-0.06	-2.02
Eterna Plc.	-0.10	-2.00
Learn Africa Plc	-0.02	-1.74

Exchange Rate(s)

• The Nigerian currency slid against the dollar at the close of this week, trading at ₦385 per dollar, a depreciation from the ₦383 a dollar recorded a week before.
• The exchange rate in the parallel or black market – where forex is traded unofficially – closed at ₦460/$1, per data from Nairametrics.
• At the NAFEX window, the rate remained stable to close at ₦386/$1 on Friday, according to FMDQ market data.

Crude oil prices

• Oil prices surged early in the week in reaction to the optimistic Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine news but dwindled as the week wore on due to the worsening short-term Covid-19 outlook. International benchmarks West Texas Intermediate and Brent Crude closed Friday at $40.37 and $42.98 – from $37.24 and $39.55 last week – respectively.
• Coronavirus cases are still surging (the U.S. recorded nearly 160,000 positive cases on Thursday) and new lockdowns are coming into effect, threatening demand.
• Crude is still poised to close out the week with price gains, but the short-term outlook is pessimistic as new restrictions hurt demand. The vaccine won’t be widely available for months at the earliest, and in the meantime, new partial stay-at-home orders have been announced in a growing number of places.
• Thus, the International Energy Agency has downgraded its demand outlook by 1.2 million barrels per day for the fourth quarter in its latest Oil Market Report, noting that the vaccine won’t help in the short run and…
• The OPEC+ group complied 101% with the oil production cuts in October, keeping a high level of conformity ahead of the crucial meetings over the next two weeks, which will decide if the alliance will reverse course on easing the cuts given the worsening demand outlook.

With information from OilPrice Intel.

Inflation

Nigeria’s annual inflation rate is currently estimated to be at 13.71% (for September 2020) according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics. It was the highest inflation rate since February of 2018 and was due to widespread increases in prices driven by the border closure, the Covid crisis as well as lower interest rates.

Manufacturing

The Central Bank of Nigeria composite Purchasing Managers’ Index for the manufacturing sector rose to 49.4% in October from 46.9% in September, still below the 50% benchmark, indicating a 6th straight month of contraction in factory activity.

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