Local Bourse opens the Week on a negative note… ASI down 74bps

Nigeria domestic equities market resumed the week on a negative note as the All Share Index (ASI) declined 74bps to settle at 27,547.32 points while YTD loss worsened to –12.3%. Consequently, investors lost N99.6bn in value as market capitalisation fell to N13.4tn. However, activity level strengthened as volume and value traded advanced 62.4% and 10.8% to 268.3m units and N2.9tn respectively. The top traded stocks by volume were FBNH (56.6m units), GUARANTY (25.9m units) and ACCESS (15.9m units) while GUARANTY (N731.5m), FBNH (N309.3m) and ZENITHBANK (N306.4m) led by value.

Performance across sectors was mixed as 3 of 6 indices under our coverage closed in the green. The Banking index led gainers, up 1.6% following bargain hunting in GUARANTY (+3.5%) and ACCESS (+1.4%). The Insurance index trailed, rising 1.2% due to gains in NEM (+9.6%) and LINKASSU (+2.0%). Similarly, the Consumer Goods index rose 20bps on the back of buying interest in NIGERIAN BEWERIES (+0.1) and CADBURY (+8.4%). On the flip side, the AFRI-ICT index led laggards, down 4.2% as investors sold off AIRTELAFRI (-4.4%) while price depreciation in CCNN (-10.0%) and DANGCEM (-0.3%) drove the Industrial Goods index index 4.2% lower. Finally, the Oil & Gas index closed flat.  

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) strengthened to 2.1x from 2.0x posted on Friday as 25 stocks advanced against 12 stocks that declined. Top performers were CORNERSTONE (+10.0%), NEM (+9.6%) and OKOMUOIL (+9.3%) while AIRTELAFRI (-10.0%), UNITYBNK (-10.0%) and CHAMS (-7.7%) led the laggards. In line with the trend, we expect the bearish performance to continue in the absence of any positive driver. Nevertheless, we do not rule out the possibility of bargain hunting activities driving positive performance in subsequent sessions.

Market Statistics Monday, 16th September 2019