Business
Yields Tilt Upward As Bond Prices Drop
There was an uptrend in yields across all maturities for the week ended June 22, 2012 as a result of low demand for fixed income securities.
Market watchers say investors preference for equities which resulted to the bullish trend in the equities market may have been responsible for the decrease in the price of bound.
In the over-the-counter bond market the 20-year, 10, 00 per cent FGN July 2030 bond dipped by N0.23 in price while yield rose to 14.47 per cent.
Also the 10-year, 7.00 per cent FGN October 2019 debt instrument dropped N0.14 in price even as yield firmed to 15.70 per cent.
The 5-year 4.00 per cent FGN April 2015 bond lost N0.10 even as yield rose to 15.00 per cent while the 3-year, 10.50 per cent FGN March 2014 bond shed N0.15 and yield increased to 15.79 per cent.
Meanwhile the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) sold a total of N100.62 billion in treasury bills with 91-day and 182-day maturities during its bi-monthly auction last week with mixed yields as against its previous auction.
According to the Apex bank, it sold N37.49 billion worth of the 91-day paper at a return of 14.05 per cent down from the 14.10 per cent at the previous auction even as N63.13 billion worth of 182 –day bills at 15.31 per cent was issued compared with 14.94 per cent at the previous auction.
According to the CBN, Nigeria plans to raise N841.56 billion worth of treasury bills which range from three months to one year in the third months of the year.
The CBN said it would auction N235.19 billion worth in 91-day, 182-day and 364-day paper in the last two weeks of June, N250.44 billion worth in July and N212.70 billion in August and another N142.97 billion worth of the same tenor in the first week of September.
The Equities Sector of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) rose by 0.99 per cent as the bulls were in charge of the market.
NSE benchmark index, the all share Index finished higher at 21,394.77 basis points having opened at 21,184.54 basis points. The cumulative market capitalisation of listed equities tilted northward as it rose from N6.76 trillion at which it opened the week to N6.83 trillion.
Four of the NSE Sectoral indices were on the upside, NSE 30 index surged by 1.01 per cent while the NSE consumer Goods Index soared by 1.73 per cent.
The NSE Banking-10 index increased by 1.64 per cent even as the NSE Insurance 10 index appreciated by 3.14 per cent, according to NSE weekly report.
On the flipside, the NSE Oil/Gas-5 index dipped by 2.39 per cent.
The market recorded a total turnover volume of 930.68 million units of shares valued at N6.33 billion exchanged by investors in 17, 744 trades even as the banking sub-sector accounted for 493.17 million units of shares at the value of N3.64 billion in 9,880 deals.
Vivian-Peace Nwinaene