NSE opens negative as ASI nose dive by 40bps

The local bourse reversed the positive performance from Friday as the All Share Index (ASI) closed 40bps lower to settle at 44,912.53 points while YTD return moderated to 17.4 per cent. Accordingly, investors lost N64.6 billion as market capitalisation closed at N16.1 trillion. The negative performance could be attributed to sell offs across board with GUARANTY (-2.2%), NESTLE (-2.0%) and UNILEVER (-5.9%) being the main drags. However, activity level strengthened as volume and value traded surged 231.2 per cent and 84.6 per cent to 4.4 million units and N15.9 billion respectively.

Sector Performance was mixed as 3 of 5 indices closed in the red while 2 trended northwards. The Banking index led losers, down 0.9 per cent following price depreciation in GUARANTY (-2.2%) and ZENITH (-0.8%). Similarly, sell-offs in FORTE (-3.4%) dragged the Oil & Gas index 0.6 per cent lower while the Consumer Goods index shed 0.4 per cent on the back of losses in NESTLE (-2.0%) and UNILEVER (-5.9%). On the flip side, the Insurance index was the top gainer, inching 0.4 per cent higher as CUSTODIAN (+4.3%) and NEM (+4.9%) recorded gains while the Industrial Goods index rose 0.2 per cent on the back of upticks in BETAGLAS (+4.9%) and WAPCO (+2bps).

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) strengthened to 1.0x from 0.7x recorded the previous Friday as 26 stocks advanced against 26 decliners. The best performers today were CAVERTON (+9.9%), WEMABANK (+9.4%) and SKYE (+9.3%) while TRANSCORP (-9.2%), UNILEVER (-5.9%) and STERLING (-4.8%) were the worst performing stocks. In line with expectation, sell offs across sectors dragged the local bourse to close in the red. Following 3 weeks of positive gains, we expect profit taking to continue in subsequent trading sessions.

Market Statistics Monday, 22nd January 2018
Market Cap (N’bn)                                           16,089.0
Market Cap (US$’bn)                                              52.6
NSE All-Share Index                                        44,912.53
Daily Performance %                                                (0.4)
Week Performance %                                                 4.2
YTD Performance %                                                 17.4
Daily Volume (Million)                                           4,436.8
Daily Value (N’bn)                                                       15.9
Daily Value (US$’m)                                                    52.0