Investors lost N26.5 bn at Nigeria stock market

Investors in shares at the Nigerian Stock Exchange have lost N26.5 billion at today’s trading as the prices of shares in the market dropped to lower level mainly in blu chip companies. In today’s trading session, the equities market shed 21bps to settle at 30,609.06 due to losses in – GUARANTY (-2.7%), FBNH (-2.7%) and UNILEVER (-2.2%). As a result, the total value of shares listed in the market declined by N26.5 billion to settle at N11.2 trillion while YTD loss weakened to -20.0%. In line with the bearish performance, activity level worsened as volume traded depreciated 38.4 per cent to 215.0 million units and value traded declined 24.9 per cent to N1.7 billion. The top traded stocks by volume were DIAMOND (71.0m units) – investors reacted to the announcement of the bank’s merger with Access bank Plc – MANSARD (20.0m units) and FBNH (16.5m units) while GUARANTY (N363.4m), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (N291.6m) and UNILEVER (N169.4m) led the top traded stocks by value.

Performance across sectors was largely bearish as 4 of 5 indices under our coverage closed in the red. The Insurance index declined the most, down 1.2 per cent on account of selloffs in CONTINSURE (-3.8%) and LINKASSURE (-8.3). Similarly, the Oil & Gas and Industrial Goods indices trailed, shedding 1.1 per cent and 0.8 per cent respectively following losses in FORTE (-10.0%), OANDO (-3.0%), WAPCO (-4.0%) and CAP (-6.4%). Additionally, the banking index was down by 0.3% as a result of sell pressure in GUARANTY (-2.7%) and FBNH (-2.7%). On the flip side, the Consumer Goods index marginally advanced by 2bps on the back of gains recorded in INTBREW (+1.7%) and DANGFLOUR (+3.8%).

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) was unchanged at 0.9x as 17 stocks advanced against 20 decliners. The best performing stocks were DIAMOND (+9.5%), ACCESS (+9.4%) and CCNN (+9.2%) while FORTE (-10.0%), IKEJAHOTEL (-9.6%) and WEMA (-8.5%) led laggards. In the near term, we expect the equities market to rebound on account of bargain hunting in stocks with attractive entry prices, we however maintain our overall bearish outlook for the market.

Market Statistics Monday, 17th December 2018

Market Cap (N’bn)                                       11,180.5

Market Cap (US$’bn)                                         36.5

NSE All-Share Index                                  30,609.06

Daily Performance %                                           (0.2)

1 Week Performance %                                       (0.0)

YTD Performance %                                           (20.0)

Daily Volume (Million)                                         215.0

Daily Value (N’bn)                                                  1.7

Daily Value (US$’m)                                               5.7