Nigerian Equity Markets | 4 Sep 2015: Cement Stocks Drag Market Performance… NSE ASI down 1.6%

LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa — The Nigerian bourse extended the previous day’s loss to today as the All share Index (ASI) fell 1.6% to close 29,393.77pts. Market capitalization also shed 164.1bn to close at 10.1tn. The decline in the ASI is attributable to further depreciations recorded in bellwether stocks such as DANGCEM (-5.0%), WAPCO (-4.0%) and NESTLE (-1.2%). Similarly, market activities measured by volume and value declined 37.8% to 273.7m units and 36.1% to N2.9bn respectively.

Sector indices were broadly negative save the Banking sector index which recorded a marginal gain of 14bps. This was primarily attributable to a 4.9% return in UBA after the bank (UBA Plc) submitted its audited H1:2015 results, posting a double digit growth in both Gross Earnings (+21.0% Y-o-Y to N166.9bn and PAT (+40.0% Y-o-Y to N32.0bn) respectively. Conversely, the Industrial Goods sector shed the most points, down 4.2% as a result of huge sell-offs in DANGCEM (-5.0%) and WAPCO (-4.0%). Equally, the Consumer Goods index followed with 0.6% loss consequent on declines in NESTLE (-1.2%) and PZ (-5.0%). The Oil & Gas and Insurance indices also closed in red, shedding 35bps and 14bps accordingly.

Market breadth closed positive today at 1.0x as 24 counters advanced while 23 stocks declined. VONO (+9.3%), TRANSEXPR (+7.1%) and STANBIC (+5.5%) led the gainers’ chart while DANGCEM, PZ and FLOURMILL all led the losers’ chart with 5.0% apiece. Today’s negative market performance was mainly driven by sell-offs in Industrial Goods heavyweights. We believe this is linked to news flows around reduction in price of Cement.   Nonetheless, we advise investors to trade cautiously while taking advantage of value stocks trading at low prices. 

Source: Afrinvest (West Africa) Limited Research Team