Nigerian Equities market Bulls defeat the Bears again… ASI Up 0.1%

Following gains in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+6.1%), FBNH (+8.2%) and UBA (+7.6%), the ASI rose 14bps to 26,776.15 points. Consequently, YTD performance softened to -14.8% while market capitalisation increased N17.7bn to N12.9tn. Conversely, activity level dipped as volume and value traded declined by 32.2% and 53.3% respectively to 267.3m units and N3.1bn. The most active stocks by volume were ACCESS (63.5m units) UBA (44.9m units), and ZENITH (24.1m units) while ACCESS (N643.7m), ZENITH (N451.6m) and GUARANTY (N475.7m) led by value.

Today, sector performance was largely bullish as 4 of 6 indices under our coverage advanced. The Banking and Consumer Goods indices gained the most, advancing 1.8% and 1.3% respectively, due to buying interest in FBNH (+8.2%), UBA (+7.6%), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+6.1%) and PZ (1.0%). Also, gains in NEM (+5.0%) and CONOIL (+9.5%) buoyed the Insurance and Oil & Gas indices, up 0.2% and 0.1% respectively. Meanwhile, sell-offs in WAPCO (-1.0%), DANGCEM (-0.6%) and MTNN (-2.3%) dragged the AFRI-ICT and Industrial Goods indices down 1.3% and 0.5%  respectively. 

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) advanced to 2.4x from 1.5x recorded previously as 24 stocks advanced relative to 10 laggards. The top performing stocks were CHAMS (+10.0%), LEARNAFRCA (+9.5%) and CONOIL (+9.5%) while NASCON (-5.7%), LASACO (-3.6%) and WAPIC (-2.9%) were the top losers. We expect the renewed interest in the market to continue although, it may be short-lived.

Market Statistics for Wednesday, 20th November, 2019