Forex, T-Bills, others record N99.5trn turnover in 7 months

…As 3 banks account for N44.90trn FX turnover
…Investors trade $1.93bn forex in 6 days
Foreign exchange transactions, Treasury bills, FGN Bonds and Other Bonds traded for a period of seven months from January to July 2018 have been put to a total value of N99.49 trillion, latest FMDQ OTC market turnover report has showed.

This is just as three commercial banks operating in the country traded a whopping total transactions turnover of N44.90 trillion in the foreign exchange market during the period under review.

The key breakdown of the figure, however, showed that N23.77 trillion Foreign Exchange (FX) was traded on the FMDQ OTC market turnover between January and July, while N13.04 trillion was traded on the foreign exchange derivatives market.

On Treasury Bills, a total of N40.19 trillion was traded between January and July 2018.

The report by FMDQ OTC stated that, “Trading activities in Treasury bills contributed the largest to overall turnover, accounting for 40.40 per cent of the market.

FX market transactions (Spot FX and FX Derivatives) accounted for 37.00 per cent whilst the Repos/Buy-Backs product category accounted for 15.39 per cent of overall market turnover.

Bonds and Unsecured Placements & Takings, which contributed the least to overall market turnover, accounted for 6.65 per cent and 0.54 per cent respectively.

The report stated that FMDQ has accomplished a full and clear revival of the Commercial Paper (CP) market with registered CP Programmes on the FMDQ Platform now well above N1.00 trillion.

The month of August saw key activities in the CP quotations space on the OTC Exchange, wherein the N100.00 billion CP Programmes of Union Bank of Nigeria Plc and Flour Mills of Nigeria of Plc respectively, were registered on the OTC Exchange’s platform.

As these institutions and a host of others continue to effectively and sustainably meet their funding needs, as well as contribute to the development of the nation’s debt markets, FMDQ continues to take crucial steps, in collaboration with market stakeholders, towards promoting transparency, governance, integrity and efficiency in the Nigerian CP market.

Consequently, the three financial institutions, which include Stanbic IBTC Bank, Access Bank Plc, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc and other top 10 dealing members (Banks) accounted for 76.23 per cent or N75.85 trillion of the overall turnover in the market, with the top three accounting for 58.13 per cent or N44.90 trillion) of this subsection of the market.

Stanbic IBTC Bank, Access Bank and United Bank for Africa were the leaders in the value traded for the overall over-the-counter (OTC) market, ranking 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively.

By ranking, Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria Limited came 4th, followed by Ecobank Nigeria Limited, Citibank Nigeria Limited, ranked 5th and 6th respectively.

In addition, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, Zenith Bank and First Bank of Nigeria Limited came 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th position respectively.

But the Investors and Exporters (I&E) FX window in just six trading days recorded total transactions value of $1.926 billion.

The special FX window traded $1.5 billion between Monday 27, August 2018 and Friday 31 August 2018, before adding $425.98 million at the close of Monday trading activities amounting to $1.926 billion.

Meanwhile, Stanbic IBTC Stockbrokers, Rencap Securities, and eight others firms out of 198 stockbrokers traded N103.4 billion shares in August on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), which represented 76.99 per cent shares on the NSE in the month under review.

Finding revealed that the firms’ transactions were from inflow of Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs), local institutional investors and equity exposure in mutual funds and Pension Funds.

Among the top 10 firms are EFCP Limited, FBN Quest Securities Limited, CSL Stockbrokers Limited, Meristem Stockbrokers Limited and Chapel Hill Denham Securities Ltd.

Others are United Capital Securities Limited, Cardinalstone Securities Limited and TRW Stockbrokers Limited.

Further breakdown revealed that Stanbic IBTC Stockbrokers traded N29.1 billion or 21.63 per cent, while Rencap Securities traded N19.2 billion or 14.31 per shares on NSE in August.

The Exchange said EFCP limited accounted for N15.26 billion or 11.36 per cent value traded in August as FBN Quest Securities came fourth on 10 most traded equities on NSE.

FBN Quest traded N8.47 billion or 6.31 per cent; CSL Stockbrokers, N7.8 billion or 5.81 per cent; Meristem Stockbrokers Limited, N6.5 billion or 4.55 per cent of value traded in August.

The last four comprises of Chapel Hill Denham securities that traded N6.1 billion or 4.55 per cent; United Capital Securities, N4.91 billion or 3.65 per cent; CardinalStone Securities, N3.66 billion or 2.73 per cent and TRW Stockbrokers, N2.4 billion or 1.79 per cent of value traded in August.