Domestic Equities Market: The Bears Win Again

… ASI down 0.7% week on week

 

At the close of the week, the local bourse recorded losses on 3 of the 5 trading sessions as investors took profit in bellwether stocks. Consequently, the NSE All-Share Index fell 0.7% week on week to settle at 38,382.39 points, year till date loss worsened to 4.7% while market capitalisation fell ₦139.2 billion week on week to close at ₦20.1 trillion. Activity level was mixed as average volume traded rose 48.8% to 468.4 million units while average value traded fell 5.0% to ₦3.9 billion. The top traded stocks by volume were UNITYBNK (1 billion units), MULTIVERSE (200.4 million units), and GUARANTY (176.9 million units) while GUARANTY (₦5.1 billion), ZENITH (₦1.7 billion), DANGCEM (₦1.1 billion) led by value.
Across sectors, performance was bearish as 4 of the 6 indices under our coverage dipped week on week,

The Industrial Goods index led laggards, down 2.6% week on week following profit-taking in BUACEMENT (-6.4%). Similarly, the Consumer Goods and AFR-ICT indices fell 1.5% and 0.3% week on week respectively due to sell pressures in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-5.3%), DANGSUGAR (-5.3%) and MTN Nigeria (-0.6%). Price declines in LINKASSURE (-9.1%) and MANSARD (-2.0%) dragged the Insurance index lower by 1bp week on week. Conversely, the Banking and Oil & Gas indices rose 2.1% and 1.6% week on week respectively on account of buying interest  Unity Bank (+9.1%), ZENITH (+5.4%), ETERNA (+20.8%) and OANDO (+3.4%).
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) strengthened to 1.3x from 0.9x recorded last previous as 30 stocks advanced against 24 stocks that declined. The top performing stocks for the week were ETERNA (+20.8%), Northern Nigerian Flower Mills (+9.7%) and Unity Bank (+9.1%) while NEIMETH (-14.8%), African Prudential Registrar (-10.1%) and NCR (-9.7) were the laggards. We expect sentiments in the equities market to remain bearish as investors’ focus tilt towards fixed-income instruments.