Interbank Rates Drop Further, Amidst Liquidity

Rates in Nigeria’s interbank money markets dropped further on Tuesday, amidst increased Liquidity, with the overnight and Open Buy-Back rates closing at 7.50% and 8.58%.
Payment of coupon inflows is expected to hit the system to the tune of N34.71bn, even as Interbank rate closing flat at N305.80/$

Bonds Market
It experienced weak demand on most tradable FGN bond. Some traders sold down on the long end of the curve . However, participants were very uncertain about the direction of yields .

Treasury Bills
Market witnessed huge demand, riding on the back of improved system liquidity, with investors taking strategic position as they reinvested bond coupon payments.

Rates dipped by 25 basis point on the average across trading benchmark securities, just as demand was witnessed in the short to medium end of the curve.
The trend is expected to continue owing to excess Liquidity in the system.we also expect CBN to offer Primary market auction tomorrow. The last stop rate for 91,182 and 364 were 10, 10.3 and 11.50 respectively.We expect the stop rates to close lower than the previous auction due to system liquidity.
The Debt Management Office (DMO) is expected to rollover N5.85bn, N26.60bn and N145.96bn of the 91-day, 182-day and 364-day bills on Wednesday.

Analyst: Judith Idialu, judyodegua@yahoo.com

CBN Injects Fresh $210m In Sustained Fx Intervention

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on Tuesday, July 17, 2018 injected the sum of $210 million into the inter-bank foreign exchange (forex) market.

A breakdown showed that while $100m was offered to authorized dealers in the wholesale segment of the market, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) got $55m, same as invisibles like tuition fees, medical payments and Basic Travel allowance (BTA).

A statement by Isaac Okorafor, Acting Director of Corporate Communications Department at the CBN, who confirmed the figures, stressed the apex bank’s resolve to continue intervening in the interbank foreign exchange market.

This, he assured, is in line with its pledge to sustain liquidity in the market and maintain stability.
Okorafor maintained that the continued forex intervention is to ensure that the CBN meets genuine customers’ requests across the various segments of the market.

Tuesday’s intervention followed a similar one on Tuesday, July 10, 2018, to cater for requests in the wholesale segment of the market.
Meanwhile, the naira continued to exchange at an average of N360/$1 in the Bureau De Change (BDC) segment of the market on Tuesday, July 17, 2018.

https://investdata.com.ng/2018/07/cbn-injects-fresh-210m-in-sustained-fx-intervention/#more

Daar Communications Cuts 2018Q1 Loss By 66.8%

Nigeria’s first private sector broadcast media group, Daar Communications Plc, on Tuesday presented its belated financials for the first quarter ended March 31, 2018, the highlight of which were the flat growth in revenue for the period, just as the management reined in on cost, among others, resulting in a N462.244m, or 66.8% reduction in loss after tax for the period.
Revenue limped from N904.428m to N913.428m; the bulk of revenue came from television, which yielded N747.203m or 81.8% of total, despite the slight drop from the previous N791.595m. Radio revenue followed with N104.252m, up from N89.158m; and N61.973m from Daar News, almost three times the N23.856m it raked in a year earlier.

Cost of sales dropped by N398.945m or 34.04% to N772.982m, down from N1.171bn in the corresponding first quarter of 2017.
This left gross profit at N140.446m, compared to the previous N267.317m loss.

Other income stood at N1.214m from N1.871m; translating to operating profit of N141.66m, from the N265.446m loss in 2017; distribution cost rose marginally from N21.731m to N22.836m; while administrative expenses dropped from N374.899m to N307.36m.

Finance changes dropped to N17.594m from N19.774m, leaving a loss before tax of N206.13m, an improvement over the N681.85m in the prior Q1.

The tax expense of N23.6m, up from N10.125m, left net loss at N229.731m from N691.975m, translating to Loss Per Share of three kobo, a three-fold improvement from the nine kobo LPS in the corresponding period of 2017.

https://investdata.com.ng/2018/07/daar-communications-cuts-2018q1-loss-by-66-8/#more