Nigerian Stock market opens trading on a Bearish note, ASI down 0.8%  

Trading at the Nigerian Stock market performed negatively at the close of business as the All Share Index (ASI) fell 0.8 per cent to 30,400.28 points while year to date YTD return weakened to -3.3 per cent and market capitalisation decreased by N89.0 billion to N11.3 trillion. Today’s performance was dragged by losses in NESTLE (-1.7%), UNILEVER (-7.0%) and ZENITH (-1.8%). In the same vein, activity level was mixed as volume traded dipped 33.4 per cent to 222.6 million units while value traded rose 88.7 per cent to 3.3 billion. The top traded stocks by volume were DIAMONDBNK (77.7m units), ZENITH (19.7m units) and FBNH (10.8m units) while NESTLE (N1.1bn), ZENITH (N430.1m) and NIGERIAN BREWERIES (N413.7m) were the top traded stocks by value.

Across sectors, performance was negative as 4 of 5 indices under our coverage closed in the red. The Industrial Goods index emerged as the lone gainer, up 0.1% due to gains in WAPCO (+0.4%). On the flip side, the Consumer Goods index shed the most, down 2.3 per cent following sell offs in NESTLE (-1.7%) and UNILEVER (-7.0%). The Banking, Oil & Gas and Insurance indices trailed, down 0.9 per cent, 0.7 per cent and 0.3 per cent respectively dragged by ZENITH (-1.8%), ETI (-3.6%), MRS (-9.9%), FORTE (-2.5%), NEM (-10.0%) and CUSTODIAN (-2.5%).

Investor sentiment remained unchanged as market breadth (advance/decline ratio) stood at 0.4x on 14 stock advancing against 34 stocks that declined. The best performers were WAPIC (+10.0%), DIAMONDBNK (+10.0%) and AGLEVENT (+7.4%) while RESORTSAL (-10.0%), NEM (-10.0%) and MRS (-9.9%) led laggards. We expect market performance to pick up mid-week due to bargain hunting in Bellwethers while maintaining a bearish outlook for the month as election uncertainties heighten.

Market Statistics Monday, 7th January 2019

Market Cap (N’bn)                                 11,336.5

Market Cap (US$’bn)                                    37.0

NSE All-Share Index                              30,400.28

Daily Performance %                                      (0.8)

1 Week Performance %                                   (3.3)

YTD Performance %                                         (3.3)

Daily Volume (Million)                                     222.6

Daily Value (N’bn)                                               3.3

Daily Value (US$’m)                                          10.9

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