Bearish pressures persists into the Fourth Consecutive Session… NSE ASI down 0.8%

The All Share Index (ASI) today shed 0.8% to settle at 36,470.05 points while YTD loss worsened to 4.6% – Lowest since October 2017 – as market bearish sentiments persist into the fourth consecutive trading session this week. Consequently, investors lost N100.8bn as market capitalization declined to N13.2tn. Today’s negative performance is traceable to profit taking in large caps – NESTLE (-5.6%), ZENITH (-4.2%) and NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-2.2%). Conversely, activity level improved as volume and value traded rose 63.6% and 196.4% to 296.3m units and N4.9bn respectively. The top traded stocks by volume were GUARANTY (78.4m), MEDVIEWAIR (50.0m) and ZENITH (26.5m) while GUARANTY (N2.9bn), ZENITH (N609.0m) and NIGERIAN BREWERIES (N305.4m) were the top traded stocks by value.

Across sectors, performance was mixed as 3 of 5 indices under our coverage trended northwards. The Oil & Gas index emerged top performer, gaining 1.2% on the back of buy interest in OANDO (+9.5%) and ETERNA (+6.2%). Equally, the Banking and Insurance indices rose 0.2% apiece, as a result of price appreciation in GUARANTY (+2.7%), WEMA (+9.5%), ETI (+0.5%), LINKASSURE (+8.2%), WAPIC (+4.8%) and NIGERINS (+8.0%). Whilst the Industrial Goods index closed flat, the Consumer Goods index closed in the red shedding 2.5% due to losses in NESTLE (-5.6%), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-2.2%) and INTBREW (-3.3%).

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) softened to 0.7x from 0.9x recorded in the preceding session as 20 stocks advanced compared to 27 that declined. The top performing stocks were WEMA (+9.7%), OANDO (+9.5%) and LINKASSURE (+8.2%) while ETRANZACT (-9.9%), LIVESTOCK (-9.3%) and TANTALIZER (-8.7%) were the worst performing stocks. Today, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) further fell to 27.5 points below the oversold benchmark. Thus, we are cautiously optimistic on the possibility of a rebound over the near term, buoyed by positive H1:2018 earnings results.

Market Statistics Thursday, 19th July 2018

Market Cap (N’bn)                      13,211.3

Market Cap (US$’bn)                        43.2

NSE All-Share Index                 36,470.05

Daily Performance %                        (0.8)

Week Performance %                      (2.0)

YTD Performance %                        (4.6)

Daily Volume (Million)                    296.3

Daily Value (N’bn)                             4.9

Daily Value (US$’m)                        15.9

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