Domestic Equities Market sustains losses… ASI down 8bps w/w 

The bearish sentiment in the local bourse persisted as the All-Share Index declined on 3 of 5 trading days – Monday (-44bps), Tuesday (-34bps) and Friday (-17bps) – with gains only on Wednesday (+6ps) and Thursday (+82bps). Consequently, market capitalisation fell to ₦12.7tn as investors lost ₦9.8n while YTD loss worsened to -9.5%. Activity level was mixed as average volume traded advanced 12.6% to 203.1m units while average value traded declined 44.7% to ₦1.5bn. STERLING (293.7m units), FCMB (55.8m units) and FBNH (49.7m units) were the most traded by volume while MTNN (₦1.5bn), GUARANTY (₦677.0m) and ZENITH (₦366.0m) led by value.

Performance across sectors under our coverage was bearish as 4 of 6 indices closed negative w/w. The AFR-ICT and Industrial Goods indices were the gainers, up 3.9% and 0.5% respectively, following price appreciation in AIRTELAF (+5.9%), CUTIX (+10.3%) and BUACEMENT (+1.2%). On the flip side, the Banking index led laggards, depreciating 3.9% due to sell pressures in UNITYBNK (-8.2%), ZENITH (-5.7%), and GUARANTY (-4.2%). Likewise, sell-offs in LINKASSURE (-14.9%), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-11.9%) and CONOIL (-10.6%) dragged the Insurance, Consumer and Oil & Gas indices lower by 1.9% apiece. 

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) fell to 0.6x from the 0.8x recorded last week as 23 stocks gained against 36 losers. The top gainers were CUTIX (+10.3%), NPFMCRBNK (+10.0%) and IKEJAHOTEL (+9.8%) while LINKASSURE (-14.9%), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-11.9%) and WAPIC (-11.4%) led decliners. In the coming week, we expect market performance to improve on bargain hunting activities.