Nigerian Equities market bows to Bear pressure… ASI Down 0.6%

Today’s session closed on a negative note as the ASI shed 56bps to settle at 26,883.33 points. The bearish performance was due to losses in MTNN (-1.7%), ACCESS (-5.1%) and UBA (-4.1%). Furthermore, YTD loss worsened to -14.5% and market capitalisation fell by N73.6bn to N13.0tn. Activity level waned as volume and value traded fell 9.0% and 3.2% to 210.0m units and N3.1bn respectively. The most active stocks by volume were UCAP (24.8m units), ZENITH (24.1m units) and DANGSUGAR (18.9m units) while GUARANTY (N530.9m), MTNN (N522.0m) and ZENITH (N447.0m) led by value.

Sector performance was bearish as 4 of 6 sectors under our coverage lost. The Banking index lost the most as price declines in ACCESS (-5.1%), UBA (-4.1%) and UBN (-0.7%) dragged the index southward by 1.2%. The AFR-ICT and Insurance indices trailed, declining 1.0% and 0.7% respectively, following losses in MTNN (-1.7%), AIICO (-9.1%) and NEM (-4.8%). Similarly, the Industrial Goods index shed 0.1% following losses in DANGCEM (-0.3%). The Consumer Goods index was the lone gainer, up 38bps due to gains in DANGSUGAR (+5.8%), FLOURMILL (+2.0%) and NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+0.8%) while the Oil & Gas index closed flat.

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) fell to 1.0x from 1.3x recorded in the previous session as 17 stocks gained against 17 losers. The top gainers were REGALINS (+10.0%), SOVRENINS (+10.0%) and NEIMETH (+9.8%) while AIICO (-9.1%), UNILEVER (-6.6%) and TRANSCORP (-6.4%) led losers. Despite today’s loss, we expect investors to take positions in fundamentally sound stocks, paving ways for price appreciation in the local bourse.

Market Statistics for Tuesday, 26th November, 2019 

Source: Afrinvest