Persistent sell pressures drag Stock market as ASI down 1.3%

At the start of trading this week, sell pressures in the local bourse persisted as the All Share Index (ASI) shed 1.3% to close at 33,611.69 points, YTD loss worsened to -12.1% while market capitalization lost N155.6bn to settle at N12.3tn. Major drags to performance today were – NESTLE (-9.7%), GUARANTY (-1.4%), ZENITH (-1.9%) and ACCESS (-1.7%). Activity level also weakened as volume and value traded declined 11.8% and 35.5% to 137.6m units and N1.4bn respectively. DIAMOND (30.1m units), UBA (16.7m units) and GUARANTY (11.2m units) were today’s top traded by volume while GUARANTY (N390.9), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (N218.8bn) and ZENITH (N136.6bn) were top traded by value.

Performance across sectors was bearish as all sectors under our coverage closed in the red. The Consumer Goods index led decliners, falling 3.7% as investors sold off NESTLE (-9.7%) and NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-0.4%) while the Insurance index followed shedding 2.1% on the back of sell-offs in NEM (-7.0%) and CONTINSUR (-6.3%). Similarly, sell pressures in GUARANTY (-1.4%), ZENITH (-1.9%) ACCESS (-1.7%) and FORTE (-9.3%) dragged the Banking and Oil & Gas indices. Furthermore, the Industrial Goods closed flattish as there was mild profit taking on CUTIX (-0.3%).

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) weakened to 0.6x from 0.9x posted last Friday as 11 stocks advanced against 20 stocks that declined. Top performers were UNIONDAC (+7.4%), HONYFLOUR (+5.6%) and UPL (+4.2%) while NESTLE (-9.7%), FORTE (-9.3%) and REGALINS (-8.7%) declined the most. We believe that today’s market performance reflects investors’ bearish outlook on the market as political risks remain heightened in addition to the continued absence of positive drivers. We, however, expect some bargain hunting to drive performance in the near term based on the availability of attractive stocks in the market.

Market Statistics Monday, 10th September 2018

Market Cap (N’bn)                         12,270.9

Market Cap (US$’bn)                           40.1

NSE All-Share Index                     33,611.69

Daily Performance %                            (1.3)

Week Performance %                           (3.5)

YTD Performance %                          (12.1)

Daily Volume (Million)                       137.6

Daily Value (N’bn)                               1.4

Daily Value (US$’m)                            4.4