DANGCEM drags benchmark index… NSE ASI down 0.6%

(Afrinvest) Bearish sentiment towards DANGCEM (-2.1%) dragged market performance on the Nigerian Stock Exchange today as the All Share Index (ASI) shed 0.6% to close at 37,950.96 points while market capitalization dipped N85.4bn to close at N13.1tn. Thus, Year-to-date gain trimmed to 41.2%. Other stocks that marginally contributed to a drop in the benchmark index were UBA (-2.8%), ZENITH (-1.1%) and DANGSUGAR (-1.8%). In the same vein, activity waned as volume and value traded fell 10.6% and 33.0% to settle at 316.1m units and N4.2bn respectively.

Bearish Performance across Sectors
Performance across sectors was largely bearish as all indices closed in the red save for the Consumer Goods index which sustained its gaining streak, climbing 0.2% on account of unrelenting gains in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+1.1%). The Industrial Goods index led sector losers, dipping 1.1% due to losses in DANGCEM (-2.1%) while the Insurance index followed suit, down 0.4% as a result of price depreciation in NEM (-4.5%). Likewise, the Banking and Oil & Gas indices slid 0.3% apiece owing to a downturn in UBA (-2.8%), ZENITH (-1.1%), TOTAL (-5.0%) and OANDO (-3.7%) respectively.

Negative Market Sentiment
The market breadth, a measure of market sentiment further waned to 0.7x (against 0.8x recorded on the previous Friday’s close) following 18 stocks that advanced against 25 decliners. The top performers for today’s trade were FIDSON (+4.7%), AGLEVENT (+4.3%) and LINKASSURE (+4.0%) while the top losers were CILEASING (-9.3%), TOTAL (-5,0%) and MAYBAKER (-4.8%). As investors await earnings result from Tier – 1 banking stocks that are yet to publish, we expect the market to trade sideways. However, we advise investors to trade cautiously as we do not rule out the possibility of some profit taking  in tomorrow’s trading session.

Market Statistics Monday, 14th August 2017
Market Cap (N’bn)                                       13,080.7
Market Cap (US$’bn)                                          42.8
NSE All-Share Index                                    37,950.96
Daily Performance %                                           (0.6)
Week Performance %                                            1.1
YTD Performance %                                             41.2
Daily Volume (Million)                                          316.1
Daily Value (N’bn)                                                    4.2
Daily Value (US$’m)                                               13.8