The Nigerian bourse halted its 5 session bullish streak today as the Benchmark index closed in the red at the end of today’s trading session. The NSE ASI declined 0.4% to close at 22,558.57 points whilst YTD return worsened to -4.9%.
Similarly, market capitalisation dipped N39.1bn to close at N8.8tn. Today’s negative close was largely as a result of selloffs in Tier-1 Banking stocks – ZENITH (-2.5%), GUARANTY (-1.3%), ETI (-4.1%) and UBA (-2.9%). In the same vein, market activity also weakened as volume and value traded fell 69.0% and 41.1% to 153.7m units and N1.5bn respectively in 2,675 deals.
Negative Performance across Sectors
Sector performance largely mirrored the benchmark index as all sector indices closed in the red save for the Industrial Goods index which rose 5bps on account of CCNN (+4.4%). The Banking index fell 2.0% on the back of selloffs in ZENITH (-2.5%), GUARANTY (-1.3%), ETI(-4.1%), UBA (-2.9%) and ACCESS (-1.4%).
Likewise, the insurance index (-0.3%) trended southwards as a result of decline in NEM (-3.6%) and AIICO (-3.4%) whilst the Oil & Gas index dipped 4bps. Similarly, the Consumer Goods index trimmed 0.1% as CADBURY (-5.0%) depreciated. CADBURY plc released its FY:2016 result today, showing a 7.7% Y-o-Y rise in revenue to N30.0bn from N27.8bn; PAT however fell from N1.2bn in FY:2015 to a loss position of N296.4m.
MPC Maintains Status-quo On Rates
Investor sentiment remained weak today as highlighted in market breadth (advancers/decliners ratio) which was flat at 0.6x – 13 advancers against 22 decliners. The best performing stocks were JBERGER (+5.3%), LIVESTOCK (-4.8%) and NASCON (-4.7%) while the worst performers were CADBURY (-5.0%), GUINNESS (-5.0%) and NAHCO (-4.8%).
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) concluded its 2nd meeting in 2017 today. In line with analysts’ expectation, the committee retained MPR at 14.0%, Asymmetric Corridor around MPR at +200/-500bps, CRR at 22.5% and Liquidity ratio at 30.0%.
We do not expect to see a reaction in the equities market on the back of this decision as the Committee’s pronouncements came in line with market expectation. We expect market performance to continue to be driven by short-term speculative activities whilst investors await secular macro triggers.
Stock Market Statistics Tuesday, 21st March, 2017
| Market Cap (N’bn) | 8,842.9 |
| Market Cap (US$’bn) | 28.9 |
| NSE All-Share Index | 25,558.57 |
| Daily Performance % | (0.4) |
| Week Performance % | 1.1 |
| YTD Performance % | (4.9) |
| Daily Volume (Million) | 153.7 |
| Daily Value (N’bn) | 1.5 |
| Daily Value (US$’m) | 4.9 |
