Nigerian Equities Market Closes Negative… NSE ASI down 52bps

The Nigerian equities market closed the day negative as the All Share Index shed 52bps to settle at 36,600.07 points; accordingly, YTD return retreated to 36.2%. Performance today can be largely attributed to losses in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-3.3%), ZENITH (-3.0%), and GUARANTY (-1.4%). As a result, market capitalization decreased by N67.0bn to N12.7tn. Nonetheless, activity level improved as volume and value traded inched 23.6% and 34.3% higher to 258.0m units and N3.3bn respectively.

Sector Indices Performance Broadly Bearish
Sector performance was broadly negative as 3 of 5 major indices closed in the red. The Banking index led losers, down 1.2% as investors booked profit in ZENITH (-3.0%) and GUARANTY (-1.4%). The Oil & Gas index trailed, down 0.9% on the back of price depreciation in FORTE (-8.9%). Similarly, losses in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-3.3%) and FLOURMILL (-5.9%) dragged the Consumer index 0.7% lower. The Insurance and Industrial Goods indices however closed the day flat.

Market Breadth Weakens
Market breadth (advancers/decliners’ ) – which measures investors’ sentiment, weakened to 0.9x from 1.2x recorded the previous day as 18 stocks advanced against 21 stocks that declined. The best performing stocks were CHAMPION (+9.1%), LINKASSURE (+5.2%) and CUSTODYINS (+4.8%) while FORTE (-8.9%), CAVERTON (-5.3%) and FLOURMILL (-5.0%) were the worst performing stocks. Although we expect year-end rebalancing of by portfolio managers to boost performance in December, market will likely continue to trade sideways in the interim due to absence of fundamental drivers of sentiment post-earnings season.

Market Statistics Tuesday, 21st November 2017
Market Cap (N’bn)                                                         12,738.2
Market Cap (US$’bn)                                                            41.6
NSE All-Share Index                                                      36,600.07
Daily Performance %                                                              (0.5)
Week Performance %                                                             (1.0)
YTD Performance %                                                               36.2
Daily Volume (Million)                                                           257.9
Daily Value (N’bn)                                                                     3.3
Daily Value (US$’m)                                                                10.8