Nigerian Stock market sustains positive momentum—Afrinvest

This week the Nigerian Stock market had a largely positive performance as trading on 4 of 5 days closed positive. Thus, the All Share Index (ASI) rose 0.2 per cent W-o-W to settle at 32,907.33 points while YTD loss moderated to -14.0 per cent and market capitalisation climbed N24.0 billion W-o-W to N12.0 trillion.

The week started on a positive note as bargain hunting in UNILEVER, ZENITH and SEPLAT buoyed the index by 37bps on Monday which continued into Tuesday, as we saw renewed investor interest in DANGCEM, NESTLE and FBNH further uplifting the local bourse by 69bps. By Wednesday, gains from Monday and Tuesday were erased by investors’ profit taking in DANGCEM, NESTLE and FBNH dragging the ASI down by 2.4 per cent. However, buy interest on Thursday and Friday in DANGCEM, GUARANTY, NESTLE and FBNH ensured a cumulative gain of 155bps and a positive close of 0.2 per cent W-o-W for the index.

Performance across sectors was also positive as 3 of 5 indices advanced W-o-W. The Oil & Gas index improved the most, up 4.1 per cent W-o-W, as investors took position in SEPLAT (+4.9%) followed by the Banking index which gained 1.1 per cent W-o-W due to investors interests in GUARANTY (+0.5%) and ZENITH (+4.8%). Similarly, the Insurance index gained 0.5 per cent W-o-W following price appreciation in CONTINSURE (+2.8%). On the flipside, the Industrial index shed the most, depreciating by 4.1 per cent W-o-W, as investors profit taking activities in WAPCO (-13.1%) and BETAGLASS (-20.4%) neutralized gains in DANGCEM (+0.5%) while the Consumer Goods index declined 1.0 per cent W-o-W following losses in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-0.6%) and UNILEVER (-2.1%) respectively.

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) softened to 0.8x from 0.9x in the prior week as 29 stocks advanced while 37 declined. The best performing stocks for the week were WEMA (+17.9%), CAP (+16.0%) and MBENEFIT (+11.5%) while FIRSTALUM (-21.4%), CUTIX (-17.5%) and JOHNHOLT (-17.0%) were the worst performing stocks. In the coming week, we expect the market to remain upbeat while maintaining our bearish near-term outlook.

Market Statistics Friday, 26th October 2018

Market Cap (N’bn)                                 12,013.7

Market Cap (US$’bn)                                   39.2

NSE All-Share Index                            32,907.33

Daily Performance %                                    1.1

Week Performance %                                   0.2

YTD Performance %                                 (14.0)

Daily Volume (Million)                              280.3

Daily Value (N’bn)                                        2.0

Daily Value (US$’m)                                    6.4