Equity market opens 2019 gloomy… ASI down 1.1%

Today, the first day of trading in 2019, the equities market posted a weak performance as sell-offs in DANGCEM (-1.9%), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-8.42%) and ACCESS (-4.4%) pulled the All Share Index (ASI) lower by 1.1% to wrap up at 31,070.06 points while YTD performance stood at -1.1% and market capitalisation shed N134.4bn to close at N11.6tn. However, activity level shrank as volume and value traded considerably fell by 76.9% and 60.5% to 214.4m units and N1.6bn respectively. The top traded stocks by volume were DIAMONDBNK (50.7m units), ZENITH (36.4m units) and SOVRENINS (32.9m units) while ZENITHBANK (N413.6m), DANGCEM (N596.5m) and GUARANTY (N181.1m) were the top traded stocks by value.

In tandem with the broader market, performance was mostly negative across sectors. The Banking index was the lone gainer, up 0.1% following buying interest in ETI (+2.1%) and UBA (+1.3%). Among the losing indices, the Consumer Goods index fell the most by 2.3% as investors sold off NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-8.42%) and NESTLE (-0.7%). Other sectors – Insurance, Industrial Goods and Oil & Gas – lost 1.3%, 1.2% and 0.7% respectively, dragged by losses in NEM (-5.2%), WAPIC (-4.8%), DANGCEM (-1.9%),  WAPCO (-3.6%), FORTE (-2.4%) and OANDO (-4.0%).

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) weakened to 0.9x from 1.8x recorded on the previous trading day (Monday) as 21 declining stocks outmatched 18 gainers. The best performing stocks for the day were JBERGER (+10.0%), VITAFOAM (+9.5%) and ROYALEX (+9.1%) while NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-8.4%), LAWUNION (-8.3%) and HONYFLOUR (-7.8%) performed the worst. As bargain hunting opportunities avail, we expect investors to take positions in market bellwethers and stocks with strong fundamentals and as such expect a considerable improvement on market performance for the rest of the week.

Market Statistics Wednesday, 2nd January 2019

Market Cap (N’bn)                                 11,586.3

Market Cap (US$’bn)                                    37.8

NSE All-Share Index                             31,070.06

Daily Performance %                                      (1.1)

WTD Performance %                                       (1.1)

YTD Performance %                                        (1.1)

Daily Volume (Million)                                    214.4

Daily Value (N’bn)                                             1.6

Daily Value (US$’m)                                           5.1