STL TRUSTEES CAPITAL MARKET & MONEY MARKET NEWS RECAP

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DMO RELEASES PUBLIC DEBT DATA FOR JUNE 2018; FGN DOMESTIC DEBT DECLINES

The Debt Management Office held a Media Briefing session on Tuesday, August 14, 2018, at which it presented the nation’s Public Debt figures as at June 30, 2018.

The figures presented revealed that the Total Public Debt which encompasses the Domestic and External Debt Stock of the Federal and 36 State Governments and the Federal Capital Territory stood at N22.38 Trillion or USD73.21 Billion as at June 30, 2018. This figure was a marginal increase of 3.01% over the Public Debt Stock for December 2017. The increase in the Public Debt Stock over the 6 months period was due largely to the USD2.5 Billion Eurobond issued in February 2018.

When compared to the Debt Data for March 2018, the Public Debt Stock actually decreased by 1.44% from N22.707 Trillion in March 2018 to N22.38 Trillion in June 2018. The decrease was due to a 3.38% decline in the FGN’s Domestic Debt Stock between March and June 2018. There were however marginal increases of 0.07% in the External Debt Stock and 2.75% in the Domestic Debt of States.

A major highlight in the Public Debt Data was the consistent decrease in the FGN’s Domestic Debt which declined from N12.589 Trillion in December 2017 to N12.577 Trillion in March 2017 and N12.151 Trillion in June 2018. This reduction in the FGN’s Domestic Debt Stock arose from the redemption of N198 Billion Nigerian Treasury Bills in December 2017 and another N639 Billion between January and June 2018.

It will be recalled that a total of USD3 Billion was raised through Eurobonds to refinance maturing domestic debt as part of the implementation of the debt management strategy for the purpose of substituting high-cost Domestic Debt with lower cost External debt to reduce Debt Service Costs for the Government.

It should be noted that the implementation of the Public Debt Management Strategy whose overall objective is to ensure that Nigeria’s debt is sustainable, is already yielding positive results. One of the beneficial outcomes is the rebalancing of the Debt Stock; the Ratio of Domestic Debt to External Debt inching towards the target of 60:40 and the target of 75:25 between Long Term Domestic Debt and Short-Term Domestic Debt.

According to the figures for June 30, 2018, released by the DMO, the Ratio between Domestic and External Debt stood at 70:30 compared to 73:27 in December 2017. Similarly, the Ratio between Long-Term Domestic Debt to Short Term Domestic Debt was 76:24 in June 2018 compared to 72:28 in December 2017

Thus, the DMO’s activities have resulted in lower interest rates for the Benchmark FGN Securities from about 18.5% in January 2017 to 11-14% in the first half of 2018. Also, with the redemption of about N840 Billion of Nigerian Treasury Bills more funds were available for lending by banks to the Private Sector. External capital raising activities also contributed to the increase in External Reserves.

INFLATION RATE DROPS FOR THE 18^TH CONSECUTIVE TIME

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), on Monday 13^th August 2018, released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for July 2018. The CPI measures the average change over time in prices of goods and services consumed by people for a day-to-day living.

The report shows inflation increased by 11.14% (year-on-year) in July 2018 which is 0.09% less than the recorded rate in June 2018 (11.23%). This reduction is the eighteenth consecutive month inflation rate has been dropping since January 2017.

Core Inflation 

According to the NBS report, core inflation stood at 10.2% and decreased by 0.2% in the month of July from the 10.4% recorded in June. On a month on a basis, it rose by 0.81% in the period under review. It was down by 0.22% when compared with 1.03% recorded in June.

However, the percentage change in the average composite CPI for the twelve-month period ending July, 2018 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve-month period was 11.48%, which is a reduction of 0.17% from 11.65% recorded in June.

Food Inflation 

The Composite Food Index rose by 12.85%, during the period under review, compared to 12.98% in June 2018. The figure shows food inflation has been declining year on year for the tenth consecutive month. The reduction was caused by the increase in price of potatoes, yam and other tubers, fish, bread and cereals, Oil and fats, vegetables and fruits.

Also, on a month-on-month basis, the Food sub-index increased by 1.40% in the month of July 2018, it went down by 0.17% from 1.57% that was recorded in the previous month of June.

The CPI report also shows that the average annual rate of change of the Food sub-index for the twelve-month period ending July 2018 over the previous twelve-month average was 17.10%, which is a reduction of 0.65% from the average annual rate of change recorded in the month of June (17.75%).

Urban Inflation

Meanwhile, the report equally shows that there is an 11.66% reduction in the urban inflation rate (year-on-year) in July 2018 from 11.68% recorded in the previous month of June 2018. The rural inflation rate remained unchanged, thus, standing at the same 10.83% recorded in the previous month of June 2018.

In the same vein, the Urban Index rose by 1.23% in July 2018 from 1.24% recorded in June, which shows a reduction of 0.01 on a month-on-month basis. For Rural Index, it also rose by 1.18%, from the recorded figure of 1.23% in the previous month of June.

The corresponding 12-month year-on-year rural inflation rate in the period under review is 13.64% compared to 14.08% in June 2018 while the corresponding urban index was 14.33% in July which is less than 14.71% reported in June 2018.

All Items Inflation (states)

During the month under review, Kebbi State recorded the highest all-items-inflation with a figure of 13.43%. Rivers State (13.09%) and Kaduna State (13.01%) followed in that order, while Plateau State (8.82%) recorded the slowest rise in price during the period. Ogun followed with 8.86% while Kwara recorded 9.63% on a year-on-year all item basis in July 2018.

SEC EXTENDS DATE FOR MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS REGULARISATION

The Acting Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mary Uduk, has extended the forbearance for multiple accounts to December 31, 2018. The new date became necessary to encourage many investors to consolidate their multiple subscriptions into one account.

According to a statement issued by the commission on Sunday 12^th August 2018, the Acting DG appealed to investors in the capital market that bought shares with different names to regularise their accounts in order to get the benefits of their investments.

“There is absolutely no punishment attached to it; SEC is not punishing anybody. We just want such individuals to come and regularise that transaction between now and December 31, 2018.

“The objective is that it will increase liquidity in the market because the shares are just there; no trading on them. Not only that, the investors cannot claim their dividends too and that increases the unclaimed dividend.”

The Acting DG also noted that the Capital Market Committee meeting agreed that in addition to the physical delivery of annual reports and accounts, the existing pilot exercise of electronic distribution by public companies should continue, while efforts are made to enlighten shareholders and obtain their relevant e-mail addresses.

She said that following the completion of the work by the committee on Minimum Operating Standard; the commission would work with trade group associations to implement the committee’s recommendations.

she said

“We also enjoined trade group associations that are yet to register with the commission to register immediately, while the capital market operators are expected to register with their respective trade group associations on or before December 31, 2018, and devised to constitute a market-wide financial technology committee to develop a fintech framework for the Nigerian capital market”.

Recall that last year, the SEC had threatened that investors in the Nigerian capital market with multiple subscriptions for public offers of any quoted company on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) may forfeit their investments.

Categories of investors with multiple subscriptions

• These include investors who actually existed but joggled their names in different forms to enable them to purchase more than the permitted units of shares on offer.
• Those that did not actually exist but used fictitious names for the purpose of purchasing more than the permitted number of shares during public offers.

DOLLAR EXCHANGE RATE REPORT 6^TH AUGUST TO 17^TH AUGUST 2018

This report is a compilation of the dollar exchange rate at the official and parallel market from the 6^th  of  August to the 17^th  of August 2018.  The quoted parallel market prices are to serve as a guide to readers, as they represent the average price obtained daily from different black-market dealers in the Country.