Nigerian Stock market  extends losses… ASI down 1.2%  

Trading on the local equity market wrapped up today on a negative note as the All Share Index (ASI) fell 1.2% to 30,036.15 points while YTD return worsened to -4.4% and market capitalisation decreased by N135.8bn to N11.2tn. Today’s performance was influenced by price depreciation in banking stocks – GUARANTY (-5.5%), UBA (-5.2%) and ZENITH (-4.7%). Similarly, activity level weakened as volume traded slid 20.1% to 216.2m units and value traded fell to 2.7bn, lower by 2.8%. The top traded stocks by volume were ZENITH (32.4m units), TRANSCORP (26.4m units) and GUARANTY (18.7m units) while ZENITH (N840.9m), GUARANTY (N608.0m) and DANGCEM (N596.5bn) were the top traded stocks by value.

Across sectors, performance was negative as 4 of 5 indices under our coverage closed in the red. The Industrial Goods index, once again, emerged as the lone gainer, up 0.5% following gains in WAPCO (+3.1%) and CCNN (+0.5%). On the flip side, the Banking index shed the most, down 3.6% following sell offs in GUARANTY (-5.5%) and UBA (-5.2%). The Insurance, Oil & Gas and Consumer Goods indices trailed, down 3.3%, 1.4% and 0.5% respectively, weighed by losses in NEM (-9.4%), WAPIC (-9.1%), OANDO (-7.7%), FORTE (-8.0%), FLOURMILL (-8.6%) and INTBREW (-1.6%).

Investor sentiment improved as market breadth (advance/decline ratio) inched up to 0.5x, against 0.4x recorded in the previous session, on 14 stock advancing relative to 27 stocks that declined. The best performers were JOHNHOLT (+9.1%), SEPLAT (+8.0%) and OKOMUOIL (+7.9%) while NEM (-9.4%), NNFM (-9.4%) and WAPIC (-9.1%) led laggards. We believe that the bearish sentiment in the local bourse will remain driven by political jitters on the back of preparations for Nigeria’s presidential elections. We however expect mild bargain hunting to uplift market performance in tomorrow’s trading session.

Market Statistics Tuesday, 8th January 2019

Market Cap (N’bn)                                   11,200.8

Market Cap (US$’bn)                                      36.6

NSE All-Share Index                                30,036.15

Daily Performance %                                        (1.2)

1 Week Performance %                                     (3.3)

YTD Performance %                                          (4.4)

Daily Volume (Million)                                       216.2

Daily Value (N’bn)                                                 2.7

Daily Value (US$’m)                                              8.7

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