February 16, 2017/InvestmentOne Research
- The Nigerian bourse reversed the positive momentum of yesterday’s session to post a -0.30% decline, as negative sentiments towards some stocks in the FMCG and Banking space weighed on the broad index. Consequently, the benchmark index weakened by -74.97pts to berth at 25,055.29pts, corresponding to a market capitalisation of c.N8.67trillion.
- This performance was largely influenced by sell pressure on NB (103.43pts), STANBIC (-14.56pts) and UACN (-4.19pts) which cancelled out the gains in GUARANTY (+17.4pts), FBNH (+14.6) and JBERGER (+6.68pts).
- Market turnover- as measure by volume and value of trade – also came in lower, falling by -11% and -12% to berth at 144m units of stocks worth at c.N1.54b. UBA and GURANTY were the most actively stocks with 30m and 23m units respectively.
- In today’s session, there were 17 gainers toppled by JBERGER (+5.00%) compared to 17 stocks topped by UACN (-4.99%). As such, market breadth index closed flat.
- With the exception of Consumer tracker (-1.73%) which closed negative due to decline in NB (3.81%), other sectoral indices closed positive. Banking (+0.40%) and Oil and Gas (+0.05%) recorded a marginal gains.
- Given investors’ concern regarding the weak macro backdrop, we expect the ASI to remain volatile in the near term. That said, we however advise investors to lengthen their horizons and build position in quality names.
