Nigerian Equities Market slides southward… ASI Loses 1.1%

The Nigerian Equities Market recorded a negative performance with the ASI losing 114bps to settle at 27,314.87 points due to price depreciation in GUARANTY (-7.5%), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-6.7%) and ETI (-9.9%). As a result, YTD performance worsened to -13.1% while market capitalisation fell by N153.7bn to N13.3tn. Also, activity level weakened as volume and value traded fell 9.8% and 16.2% to 175.8m units and N2.6bn respectively. The most active stocks by volume were FBNH (17.4m units), ACCESS (10.6m units) and ZENITH (9.4m units) while GUARANTY (N684.2m), DANGCEM (N590.5m) and NASCON (N274.1m) led by value.

Sector performance was bearish as 3 of the 6 sector indices under our coverage closed in the negative territory. The Banking (-4.5%) and Oil & Gas (-2.0%) indices led losers, following selloffs in GUARANTY (-7.5%) and ETI (-9.9%) as well as MOBIL (-9.5%) and TOTAL (-4.9%). Similarly, the Consumer Goods index was down 1.2% due to losses in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-6.7%) and  DANGSUGAR (-0.9%). Conversely, the Insurance (+2.7%) and Industrial Goods (+0.1%) indices closed green on the back of buying interest in CONTINSURE (+9.7%), WAPIC (+5.9%) and WAPCO (+0.6%). Finally, the AFR-ICT index closed flat.

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) declined to 0.5x from 1.0x recorded in the previous session as 11 stocks gained relative to 24 losers. The top performing stocks were NEIMETH (+10.7%), CONTINSURE (+9.7%) and ABCTRANS (+8.8%) while FIDSON (-10.0%), AFRIPRUD (-10.0%) and ETI (-9.9%) led losers. We maintain our bearish stance for the market, although the current low prices of stocks present opportunities for bargain hunting.

Market Statistics Tuesday, 2nd October 2019