Nigerian Equity Markets | 11 May 2016: Nigerian Equities Market Closes Limp … NSE ASI down 6bps

LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa: The Nigerian bourse declined further at the end of today’s trading session, albeit marginally as the All Share Index eased 6bps to close at 25,630.62 points. Market capitalization settled at N8.8tn as investors lost N2.1bn. The benchmark index was dragged by the depreciation in DANGCEM (-2.1%), FLOURMILL (-4.9%), and WAPCO (-0.7%), offsetting the gains in NESTLE (+2.8%), GUARANTY (+1.2%), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+0.4%) and TIGER BRAND (+10.0%). Market activity was however mixed as volume traded declined 16.8% while value traded rose 17.6% to close at 197.9m units and N1.6bn respectively.  

Industrial Goods Index Emerges Lone Decliner.
All sectors trended northwards save for the Industrial Goods index which shed 0.7% on the back of the continuous decline in sector bellwethers; DANGCEM (-2.1%) and WAPCO (-0.7%). The Insurance and Banking indices increased 0.6% a piece as a result of bargain hunting in MASARD (+3.1%) and persistent uptrend in GUARANTY (+1.9%) and DIAMOND (+5.0%). Uptrend in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+0.4%) and CHAMPION (+5.0%) pushed the Consumer Goods Index 0.1% upwards whilst the Oil & Gas index improved 1bp.  

Investor Sentiment Remains Broadly Positive
As with the first two trading sessions of the week, investors’ sentiment remained strong today. Market breadth (advancers’/decliners’ ratio) settled at 1.6x consequent on 31 advancing stocks against 20 decliners. TIGERBRAND (+10.0%), LIVESTOCK (+5.0%) and CHAMPION (+5.0%) topped the gainers list while WEMA (-8.7%), CAVERTON (-8.6%) and JOHNHOLT (-5.0%) topped the losers list. We believe that the rally in some of the small cap stocks may be as a result of speculative positioning on the part of investors. We however opine that the benchmark index will trend sideways in the coming sessions on profit taking activities by short-term investors.

Source: Afrinvest (West Africa) Limited Research Team