NSE benchmark index dips 2.6% as investors lost N345.6bn

Market Statistics Wednesday, 21st June 2017
Market Cap (N’bn)                          11,576.6
Market Cap (US$’bn)                            37.9
NSE All-Share Index                     33,477.89
Daily Performance %                            (2.6)
Week Performance %                          (0.9)
YTD Performance %                            24.6
Daily Volume (Million)                        508.7
Daily Value (N’bn)                                  6.4
Daily Value (US$’m)                            20.9

Investors at the Nigerian Stock Exchange lost N345.6 billion as market capitalisation fell to N11.6 trillion. Activity level however, improved as volume and value traded rose 29.7 per cent and 52.1 per cent to 508.7 million units and N6.4 billion respectively.
The market halted its 4-day bullish run as the benchmark index slid 2.6 per cent to settle at 33,477.89 points, paring year to date YTD return to +24.6 per cent. Performance was dragged by profit taking in major banking stocks – Guaranty (-2.5%), Zenith (-4.0%), ETI (-5.0%), FBNH (-5.0%) and Access (-4.0%) as well as other market heavyweights in the Industrial and Consumer Goods sector – DANGCEM (-4.2%), NESTLE (-1.1%) and NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-1.2%).

Bearish performance across sectors
Performance across sectors was broadly bearish as all indices declined. The Industrial Goods index declined the most, down 3.6 per cent due to price depreciation in DANGCEM (-4.2%) and WAPCO (-4.1%) while sustained profit taking in ZENITH (-4.0%) and GUARANTY (-2.5%) dragged the Banking index down 2.9 per cent. Similarly, the Insurance and Consumer Goods indices slid 1.4 per cent and 1.1 per cent respectively on account of losses in MANSARD (-3.2%) and NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-1.2%) while weaker sentiment towards OANDO (-5.0%) pulled the Oil & Gas index down 0.5 per cent.

Investor sentiment remains soft
Investor sentiment as mirrored by the market breadth (advancers/decliners’ ratio) softened to 0.3x from 0.9x recorded yesterday as 12 stocks advanced against 37 that declined. At the top of the gainers’ chart were NEIMETH (+9.1%), CONOIL (+5.0%) and CCNN (+4.9%) while PZ (-5.0%), SKYE (-5.0%) and CADBURY (-5.0%) topped the losers’ chart. Whilst today’s performance was mainly dragged by profit-taking in some stocks that had appreciated in the previous sessions, we remain optimistic that the downtrend would not persist beyond the short term as we expect investor sentiment to remain largely driven by improvements in macroeconomic fundamentals, developments in the FX market and anticipated strong Q2 earnings.