Bears regain grip on Nigerian Equities market, investors lost N129.9bn 

Trading activities in the domestic equities market closed in the red as price depreciation in NESTLE (-3.9%), DANGCEM (-1.4%) and MTNN (-1.1%) drove the All Share Index (ASI) 97bps lower to 27319.64 points. As such, YTD loss dipped to -13.1% while market capitalisation shed N129.9bn to settle at N13.3tn. Similarly, activity level declined as volume traded fell 14.9% to 250.5m units while value traded also decreased by 8.7% to N3.2bn. The top traded stocks by volume were ACCESS (81.9m units), WAPCO (40.6m units) and ZENITH (27.5m units) while the top traded stocks by value were WAPCO (N587.4m), ACCESS (N542.3m) and MTNN (N526.4m).

The sector performance in today’s trading session was bearish as 5 of 6 indices under our coverage trended southward, save the Industrial Goods index which gained 0.3% as a result of buying interest in WAPCO (+4.2%). The Consumer Goods index led decliners, shedding 2.2% following sell pressures in NESTLE (-3.9%), GUINNESS (-9.9%) and NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-1.8%). The Insurance and Oil & Gas indices trailed, as sell-offs in MANSARD (-3.9%), WAPIC (-5.3%), FORTE (-9.7%) and OANDO (-1.3%) pulled the indices down by 1.0% and 0.7% respectively. Similarly, the Banking index closed 0.7% lower, on the back of losses in GUARANTY (-2.8%) and FBNH (-3.2%) while price depreciation in MTNN (-1.1%) dragged the AFR-ICT index 0.6% lower.  

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) was unchanged from the 0.7x recorded yesterday albeit 13 stocks advanced against 19 stocks decliners. The outperforming stocks were UACN (+9.9%), UAC-PROP (+9.8%) and AFRIPRUD (+8.8%) while GUINNESS (-9.9%), IKEJAHOTEL (-9.8%) and FORTE (-9.7%) led laggards. Given the weak state of the economy, our bearish outlook on the equities market remain unchanged.

Market Statistics Wednesday, 4th September 2019