Foreign, local Investors dump shares at Nigerian Stock market over political uncertainty

The Nigerian Stock market reversed its bullish run shedding 1.6 per cent to settle at 32,190.07 points following sell offs triggered by the current undefined political climate. Losses in blue chips stocks – NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-9.6%), GUARANTY (-3.8%) and ZENITH (-3.0%) were the major drags to today’s performance. As a result, market capitalisation decreased by N195.8 billion to N12.0 trillion while YTD gain moderated to 2.4 per cent. Activity level weakened as volume and value traded declined by 71.2 per cent and 48.2 per cent to 232.7 million units and N3.4 billion respectively. ACCESS (25.3m units), CHAMS (21.7m units) and UBA (20.4m units) were the top trades by volume while NESTLE (N779.6m), UNILEVER (N574.7m) and GUARANTY (N519.1m) led the top trades by value.

Performance across sectors was negative as all 5 indices under our coverage closed in the red. The Banking and Oil & Gas indices led decliners shedding 3.2% and 2.9% respectively following profit taking in GUARANTY (-3.8%), ZENITH (-3.0%), TOTAL (-7.3%) and MOBIL (-7.6%). The Consumer Goods index trailed, down 1.5% on the back of losses in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-9.6%) and DANGSUGAR (-4.9%) while the Industrial Goods index fell by 1.2% following sell offs in CCNN (-4.8%) and DANGCEM (-0.4%). WAPIC (-4.7%) and NEM (-2.0%) dragged the Insurance index 1.1% lower.

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) weakened to 0.3x from 1.5x in the previous trading session as 12 stocks advanced against 37 decliners. Today’s top performers were PRESCO (+10.0%), BETAGLASS (+9.3%) and CAP (+6.9%) while TRANSCORP (-9.9%), CILEASING (-9.8%) and LIVESTOCK (-9.7%) declined the most. We anticipate the bearish run to be sustained this week due to pre-election jitters caused by the uncertainties surrounding the elections.

Market Statistics Monday, 18th February 2019

Market Cap (N’bn)                                       12,004.2

Market Cap (US$’bn)                                          39.2

NSE All-Share Index                                    32,190.07

Daily Performance %                                           (1.6)

1 Week Performance %                                         1.3

YTD Performance %                                              2.4

Daily Volume (Million)                                         232.7

Daily Value (N’bn)                                                   3.4

Daily Value (US$’m)                                               11.0