Sell Pressure on Large Cap Stocks Drags Nigerian Share Index Lower

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The Nigerian All Share Index recorded a loss at the end of trading today, shedding 11bps to close at 27,223.08 points on account of sell pressure on large cap stocks. Price depreciation in ETI (-4.9%), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-0.7%), GUARANTY (-0.8%) and TOTAL (-3.6%) dragged market performance. Accordingly, investors lost N10.1bn as market capitalization trimmed to N9.4tn. Activity level was mixed as volume traded improved 8.5% to 202.7m units while value traded slid 4.0% to N1.3bn respectively.
 
Industrial Goods Index Emerges Lone Gainer
Performance across sectors was broadly negative as 3 sector indices depreciated, 1 improved and the other closed flat. The Industrial Goods index was the lone gainer, up 1.7% on account of gains in WAPCO (+4.8%). On the flip side, the Oil & Gas index declined the most, dipping 1.0% on the back of price depreciation in OANDO (-4.9%) and TOTAL (-3.6%). The Banking index followed, losing 0.6% on the back of sell offs in ETI (-4.9%) and GUARANTY (-0.8%). The Consumer Goods index also closed 0.1% lower, against the backdrop of losses in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-0.7%) and FLOURMILL (-0.9%). The Insurance index closed flat.

Market Breadth Improves
Investor sentiment improved today as market breadth stood at 1.2x (from 1.1x yesterday) after 18 stocks advanced against 15 declining stocks. CHAMPION (+7.3%), TRANSCORP (+6.9%) and AIRSERVICE (+5.0%) topped the gainers list while ETI (-4.9%) OANDO (-4.9%) and UAC-PROP (-4.9%) led the losers’ chart. Investor sentiment remains majorly driven by Q3:2016 earnings releases – which have remained broadly unimpressive – hence we expect the bearish trend in the market to persist.