Nigerian Stock Market opens on a Negative Note…ASI down 0.24%

The domestic equities market shed 24bps in today’s session to settle at 32,048.18 points due to sell-offs in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-2.8%), UNILEVER (-6.0%) and UBA (-5.1%). As a result, market capitalisation declined by N28.0 billion to N11.7 trillion while YTD loss further fell to -16.2 per cent. Activity level also weakened, as volume and value traded trended lower by 34.0 per cent and 38.6 per cent to 157.7 million units and N1.8 billion respectively. The top traded stocks by volume were ACCESS (18.9m), FCMB (14.5m) and GUARANTY (N13.1m) while the top traded stocks by value were GUARANTY (N498.9m), PRESCO (N169.4m) and ZENITH (N165.7m).

Performance across sectors was largely bearish as 4 of 5 indices under our coverage trended southwards. The Consumer Goods  index depreciated the most, down 0.6 per cent, following sell-offs in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-2.8%) and UNILEVER (-6.0%). The Industrial and Banking indices trailed, as they shed 0.5 per cent and 0.5 per cent respectively, due to sell pressures CCNN (-9.4%), WAPCO (-0.6%), UBA (-5.1%), ACCESS (-4.2%) and FBNH (-3.9%). Losses in PRESTIGE (-8.9%) and NIGERINS (-8.3%) dragged the Insurance index lower by 0.5 per cent. On the flip side, the Oil & Gas index closed as the lone gainer, up 0.8 per cent due to gains in SEPLAT (+2.4%) following a positive 9  months 2018 result.

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) remained unchanged at 0.7x as 16 stocks appreciated against 24 decliners. UACN (+10.0%), CADBURY (+10.0%) and PRESCO (+9.9%) were the best performing stocks while the worst performing stocks were CCNN (-9.4%%), NNFM (-9.3%) and PRESTIGE (-9.3%). Today was a largely positive performance till the last hour of trading as investor profit taking on large counters wiped off early trading gains. Nonetheless, bargain hunting may lift performance tomorrow.

Market Statistics Monday, 5th November 2018

Market Cap (N’bn)                               11,700.1

Market Cap (US$’bn)                                 38.2

NSE All-Share Index                          32,048.18

Daily Performance %                                  (0.2)

Week Performance %                                (3.5)

YTD Performance %                                (16.2)

Daily Volume (Million)                              157.7

Daily Value (N’bn)                                       1.8

Daily Value (US$’m)                                   5.7