Nigerian Equities Unable To Sustain Gains …NSE ASI Sheds 54bps

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The local bourse was unable to sustain gains recorded in the previous trading session as a result of sell-offs in Consumer Goods stocks – NESTLE (-3.3%), NB (-1.0%) and PZ (-9.7%). Thus, the All Share Index slid 54bps to close at 25,322.30 points, bringing YTD loss to –5.8%. Investors, in turn, lost N10.9bn as market capitalization settled at N8.8tn. Activity level stayed mixed as volume traded declined 58.9% to 143.2m units while value traded increased 9.5% to N1.5bn.

Bearish Performance across Sectors
Performance across sectors mirrored the broader index as all sector indicators trended southward save for the Insurance index which closed flat. The Consumer Goods index (-1.6%) declined the most –  broadly driven by NESTLE (-3.3%) and NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-1.0%) – while the Banking and Oil & Gas indices followed, down 0.4% apiece as a result of price depreciation in ACCESS (-0.6%), UBA(-0.8%) and FORTE (-5.0%). Similarly, the Industrial Goods Index shed 1bp due to a decline in NASCON(-4.3%).

Investor Sentiment Worsens
Investor sentiment waned today as market breadth settled at 0.3x (from 0.8x yesterday) after 9 stocks advanced against 27 declining stocks. The best performing stocks today were MANSARD (+4.6%),UACN (+4.1%) and CAVERTON (+3.4%) while PZ (-9.7%), 7UP (-5.0%) and FORTE (-5.0%) were the worst performers. Given the overall downtrend in the market, as investors await more earnings scorecards, performance remains dictated by investors’ reactions to previous releases as well as short term momentum trading. Nonetheless, we expect the index to close the week negative.   

Source: Afrinvestor Research Nigeria