Losses in Bellwethers drags benchmark index… ASI down 46bps

In today’s trading session, losses in bellwethers – DANGCEM (-2.4%), FBNH (-2.8%) and STANBIC (-1.6%) drags the benchmark index 46bps lower to 32,963.27 points, ex-DANGCEM, the ASI would have gained 35bps. This, YTD loss worsened to -13.8% while market capitalization fell by N55.2bn to N12.0tn. Similarly, activity level weakened as volume and value traded declined 22.8% and 37.5% to close at 172.2m units and N2.1bn respectively. The top traded stocks by volume were FIDELITY (33.8m units), UBA (19.8m units) and ZENITH (12.3m units) while GUARANTY (N1.0bn), UBA (165.8bn) and FBNH (71.7bn) were the top traded stocks by value.

Performance across sectors was largely bearish as 4 of 5 indices under our coverage closed in the red. The Industrial Goods index shed the most, down 1.4% as a result of price depreciation in DANGCEM (-2.4%) and CCNN (-0.8%). The Insurance and Consumer Goods indices followed, down 0.4% and 0.1% respectively on the back of profit taking in CUSTODIAN (-7.4%), CONTINSURE (-3.4%), NASCON (-3.1%) and FLOURMILL (-1.8%) while the Oil & Gas index marginally shed 4bps following sell-offs in OANDO (-1.2%). On the flipside, the Banking index advanced 1.9% as a result of buying interests in ZENITH (+4.7%) and UBN (+3.9%).

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) weakened to 0.7x from 1.3x recorded the last session as 16 stocks appreciated against 23 decliners. The best performing stocks were led by UACPROP (+10.0%), UPL (+7.3%) and ZENITH (+4.6%) while BERGER (-10.0%), ROYALEX (-9.1%) and UNIONDAC (-8.6%) were the worst performers. Today’s decline was in line with our expectation and we maintain a bearish outlook for the rest of this week.

Market Statistics Wednesday, 26th September 2018

Market Cap (N’bn)                             12,034.1

Market Cap (US$’bn)                                39.3

NSE All-Share Index                          32,963.27

Daily Performance %                                 (0.5)

Week Performance %                                 1.8

YTD Performance %                               (13.8)

Daily Volume (Million)                             172.2

Daily Value (N’bn)                                       2.1

Daily Value (US$’m)                                   6.7

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