Nigeria Equity Watch | 19 Aug 2015 : Equity Market Returns to Negative… NSE ASI Down 23bps

Lagos, Nigeria (Capital Markets in Africa) — The activities in the Nigerian Bourse mirrored that of yesterday, as bearish sentiment persisted until a late rally in DANGCEM (+1.8%) boosted the performance today. Notwithstanding the above, the All Share index depreciated 0.2% closing the day at 30, 042.38points. Today’s decline was broadly driven by losses in OANDO (-5.0%), GUARANTY (-1.8%) and ZENITH (-1.2%). Market capitalization also declined 0.2% to berth at N10.3tn. Market activity worsened, as volume and value traded fell 2.7% and 29.5% to 299.7m units and N2.6bn respectively.

The Industrial Index was the lone gainer by sector for the second consecutive day, up 0.4% due to further appreciation in DANGCEM (+1.8%). The Banking sector index declined the most (-5.3%) on the back of sell offs in key counters in the sector – GUARANTY (-1.8%) and ZENITH (-1.2%). The Consumer goods index also declined 3.3% while the Oil & Gas and Insurance Indices lost 1.7% and 1.2% respectively to cap off the poor performance across sectors.

Negative investor sentiments in equities remained unchanged as market breadth (advancers/ decliners ratio) settled at 0.2x with 6 advancers against 37 decliners. The best performing stocks for the day were PAINTCOM (+4.2%), MAYBAKER (+2.4%) and DANGCEM (+1.7%) while TRANSCORP (-9.2%), OANDO (-5.0%) and CADBURY (-5.0%) were the worst performing stocks. As the market continues on its tailspin, investors are advised to maintain a medium to long term investment horizon in equities.

Source: Afrinvest (West Africa) Limited Research Team