January 3, 2017/InvestmentOne Research
- Nigerian equities opened the year on a negative note, as investors maintained a bearish sentiment on stocks. Consequently, the NSE-ASI weakened by -0.96% (-257.73pts) to berth at 26,616.89pts with corresponding market capitalisation of c.N9.16trillion.
- Sell pressure on NB (-138.28pts), GUARANTY (-59.98pts) and ZENITHBANK (-31.99pts), which cancelled out the gains in STANBIC (+20.09pts), FBNH (+5.22pts) and UCAP (+1.39pts) could be largely blamed for today’s decline.
- Activity levels as measured by volume and value traded was however mixed as investors exchanged over 296m units of stocks valued at c.N1.3bn in 2,033 deals. This represented a +89% jump in volume traded while value turnover declined by -13%. OMOSAVBNK and GUARANTY were the most actively traded stocks with 190m and 28m units respectively.
- In today’s session, there were 13 gainers led by UAC-PROP (+4.96%) as against 18 decliners topped by CCNN (-5.00%).
- Major sectoral indexes closed negative; Banking (-2.38%), Consumer (-1.99%), Oil & Gas(-0.49%) and Industrial (-0.18%).
- Though our near term expectation is that the index would open the year on a bearish note, given the current fragile macro outlook, we advise gradual building of positions in quality names for investors with a medium to longer term horizon.
