Equities Market extends losses … ASI down 1.0%

In today’s trading session, the equities market extended its losses as sell-offs in GUARANTY (-4.5%), STANBIC (-4.1%) and ZENITH (-1.5%) dragged the All Share Index (ASI) lower by 1.0% to close at 30,771.32 points while YTD performance extended to -2.1% and market capitalisation shed N111.4bn to close at N11.5tn. Activity level declined as volume and value traded slid by 21.6% and 27.8% to 168.2m units and N1.1bn respectively. The top traded stocks by volume were DIAMOND (51.9m units), TRANSCORP (12.8m units) and ACCESS (11.3m units) while GUARANTY (N171.9m), ZENITH (N168.7m) and DIAMOND (N107.2m) and were the top traded stocks by value.
Market performance was mostly bearish across sectors as the Oil & Gas index was the lone gainer, up 0.6% propped up by gains in FORTE (+9.6%). The Industrial Goods index posted the worst performance, down by 2.8% following losses in CCNN (-4.9%) and WAPCO (-4.2%). The Banking index trailed, shedding 2.1% dragged by  GUARANTY (-4.5%) and STANBIC (-4.1%); while the Insurance and Consumer Goods indices also had a downward trajectory, weighed by price depreciation in SOVRENINS (-4.8%), DANGSUGAR (-1.7%) and FLOURMILL (-1.6%).
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) weakened to 0.5x from 0.9x recorded previously as 24 declining stocks outnumbered 13 gainers. The top performing stocks for the day were FORTE (+9.6%), UBN (+8.0%) and TRANSEXPR (+7.7%); while GLAXOSMITH (-10.0%), UPL (-9.6%) and MCNICHOLS (-8.5%) performed the worst. Despite the bearish performance of the market, good bargains in fundamentally sound stocks exist. We expect investors to take positions in these stocks even as pre-election jitters continue.

Market Statistics Thursday, 3rd January 2019

Market Cap (N’bn)                                    11,474.9

Market Cap (US$’bn)                                      37.5

NSE All-Share Index                               30,771.32

Daily Performance %                                       (1.0)

1 Week Performance %                                  (2.9)

YTD Performance %                                        (2.1)

Daily Volume (Million)                                    168.2

Daily Value (N’bn)                                             1.1

Daily Value (US$’m)                                          3.7