Bears maintain grip on stock market… ASI down 13bps

As envisaged, the bears maintained a firm grip in today’s trading session as the All Share Index (ASI) declined 13bps to settle at 35,399.28 points while YTD loss further dipped to -7.4 per cent. As a result, investors lost N17.0 billion in value as market capitalisation fell to N12.9 trillion. Today’s negative performance was largely driven by sell offs in UBA (-3.2%), GUINNESS (-4.3%), GUARANTY (-0.5%) and ZENITH (-0.6%) – stocks with a large weight on the index. On the flip side, activity level was mixed as volume traded fell 16.9 per cent to 160.4million units while value traded improved 9.0 per cent to N2.2 billion. UBA (30.6m), FBNH (14.0m) and GUARANTY (13.9m) were the top traded stocks by volume while GUARANTY (N536.9bn), ZENITH (N291.6bn) and UBA (N288.4bn) were the top traded stocks by value.

Despite the improved interest we observed in banking stocks last week, the index emerged the biggest loser in today’s trading session, shedding 0.8% as losses in UBA (-3.2%), GUARANTY (-0.5%) and ZENITH (-0.6%) pulled the index lower. Similarly, the Insurance and Oil & Gas indices followed suit, declining 0.5% and 0.3% respectively on the back of price depreciation in NEM (-5.4%), AIICO (-5.6%) and 11PLC (-2.6%). Likewise, the Consumer and Industrial Goods indices closed in the red, albeit flattish, down 1bp apiece.

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio), contracted to 0.5x from 0.6x recorded the previous Friday as 14 stocks advanced against 26 stocks that declined. The top three performers for the day were ETERNA (+9.9%), UACN (+7.7%), COURTVILLE (+5.0%) while UNIONDAC (-9.1%), MBENEFIT (-9.1%), LIVESTOCK (-8.7%) led laggards. We expect the bearish performance to be sustained till midweek as investors continue to take profit following some unimpressive H1:2018 releases.

Market Statistics Monday, 13th August 2018

Market Cap (N’bn)                                      12,923.9

Market Cap (US$’bn)                                         42.2

NSE All-Share Index                                  35,399.28

Daily Performance %                                          (0.1)

Week Performance %                                         (3.0)

YTD Performance %                                           (7.4)

Daily Volume (Million)                                       160.4

Daily Value (N’bn)                                                 2.2

Daily Value (US$’m)                                              7.2

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