Nigeria Equity Watch | 25 Aug 2015 : Nigerian Equities Market Rout Continues… NSE ASI down 1.4%

Lagos, Nigeria (Capital Markets in Africa) — As the global equities quiver on the Chinese market rumble, the Nigerian Bourse sustains further loses as against rebounds noticed in some European and the US Markets. This was on the back of additional depreciation in large cap stocks such as NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-5.0%), GUARANTY (-3.9%) and DANGOTE CEMENT (-0.6%). The All Share Index declined 1.4% to 28,807.13pts thereby extending YTD loss to 16.9% while W-o-W decline berthed at 4.3%.

Market capitalization contracted by N112.9bn settling at N9.9tn at the close of trade. Market activity (measured by volume and value traded) increased notably as volume improved 134.4% to 604.0m units and value expanded 5.3% to N2.9bn.

All sector indicators headed southwards with the Consumer index declining the most, down 2.4% as a result of depreciation in key counters — NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-5.0%) and PZ (-5.0%). The Banking sector followed with –2.3% on account of bearish bets on GUARANTY (-3.9%) and ZENITHBA (-2.1%). The Oil & Gas index dipped 0.9% on account of a decline in OANDO (-5.0%). The Industrial index also slipped 0.3% while the Insurance index was flat.

Market breadth (advancers/decliners ratio) settled at 0.2x as 6 stocks gained while 36 stocks sank. FIDELITYBK (+5.0%), COSTAIN (+3.5%) and FIDSON (+2.8%) were the top gainers while CAVERTON (-9.5%), PAINTCOM (-5.0%) and OANDO (-5.0%) led the market laggards. Short term investors appear to be taking a cue from jitters across global markets in our view. Consequently, we strongly advise investors to stay clear of short term speculation on equities but maintain a long term positions in stocks with sound fundamentals.