Share sell off banking stock depressed stock market as investors lost N106.9bn

Trading at the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange extended losses from last week into Monday as the All Share Index (ASI) dipped by 0.7 per cent – its 8th consecutive daily decline – to settle at  39,040.44 points while YTD return further moderated to 2.1 per cent. Consequently, investors lost N106.9 billion as market capitalisation fell to N14.1 trillion. Sell pressures in banking stocks – GUARANTY (-2.3%), ZENITH (-2.1%) and FBNH (-4.6%) – were largely responsible for today’s bearish performance. Activity level softened as volume and value traded declined 24.9 per cent and 44.8 per cent to 222.3 million units and N1.6 billion respectively. The top traded stocks by volume were AIICO (40.8m), ACCESS (27.4m) and FBNH (26.5m) while the top traded stocks by value were ACCESS (N292.1m), FBNH (N245.6m) and ZENITH (N238.3m).

In line with market performance, sector performance was bearish as all 5 indices under our coverage closed southwards. The Industrial Goods index led laggards down 2.1 per cent, on the back of selloffs in WAPCO (-4.9%) and CAP (-5.3%) which outweighed gains in DANGCEM (+0.4%). Similarly, the Banking and Insurance indices shed 2.0% and 1.1% respectively as sell pressures in GUARANTY (-2.3%), ZENITH (-2.1%), WAPIC (-7.7%) and LINKASSU (-4.8%) dragged both indices. Furthermore, the Consumer Goods index lost 0.1% as price depreciation in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-0.4%) and DANGFLOUR (-3.9%) offset gains in FLOURMILLS (+2.0%) and DANGSUGAR (+0.3%) while the Oil & Gas index fell 2bps due to losses in 11PLC (-4.6%) and OANDO (-4.8%).

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) remained flat at 0.3x as 10 stocks advanced against 35 stocks that declined. HMARKINS (+6.7%), ETERNA (+4.9%) and IKEJAHOTEL (+4.7%) led the gainers today while FCMB (-9.1%), JAPAULOIL (-8.3%) and WAPIC (-7.7%) declined the most. We believe the current bearish sentiment will continue till midweek, however, we expect investor’s bargain hunting activities on some oversold bellwether securities to buoy market performance from Wednesday.

Market Statistics Monday, 28th May 2018

Market Cap (N’bn)                                14,137.3

Market Cap (US$’bn)                                  46.2

NSE All-Share Index                           39,040.44

Daily Performance %                                  (0.7)

Week Performance %                                 (3.4)

YTD Performance %                                    2.1

Daily Volume (Million)                               222.3

Daily Value (N’bn)                                         1.6

Daily Value (US$’m)                                      5.4