Nigeria Market Watch | May 21st 2015: Nigerian Equities Maintains 3-Day Losing Streak

Lagos, Nigeria (Capital Markets in Africa):-The Nigerian Bourse suffered a third straight day of losses as the benchmark index- All Share Index- lost 21bps to close at 34, 459.8points. This decline was broadly driven by losses recorded in SEPLAT (-3.6%), ZENITH (-0.9%) and NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-0.4%). In light of this, market capitalization also declined by N25.0bn to close at N11.7tn for the day. Similarly, market activity weakened as volume and value traded declined 89.6% and 75.3% to close at 196.2m units and N1.4bn respectively.

Sector Performance in the Red
Performance of the various sectors was largely bearish as all sectors traded southwards save for the Industrial goods index which traded flat. The Oil & Gas index declined the most as it depreciated by 1.3%, consequent on losses in SEPLAT (-3.6%) and OANDO (-1.3%). Likewise, the Insurance Index declined by 0.8% due to price depreciation in MANSARD INSURANCE (-3.7%) followed by the Banking index which depreciated 0.3% and the Consumer goods index (-0.2%).

Market Breadth still Negative
Sentiments within the market were negative today as 20 stocks advanced against 27 decliners, resulting in a market breadth of 0.7x. The top advancing stocks were VONO (+9.8%), NEIMETH INTERNATIONAL (+4.8%) and NEM INSURANCE (+4.8%) while EVANS MEDICAL (-9.0%), VITAFOAM (-4.9%) and DANGOTE FLOUR (-4.9%) declined the most. The market is expected to trade softly as the May 29^th hand over is on the horizon.