Culled—Proshare
February 19, 2018/Afrinvest
Market Last Week (Our Observation)
• The bearish trend in the Nigerian equities market extended to the second week as the NSE All Share Index (ASI) declined 1.1% W-o-W to settle at 42,638.83 points while YTD return moderated to 11.5%
• Performance across sectors was largely bearish as all sector indices declined. The Insurance index depreciated the most, losing 1.7% W-o-W. Following closely was the Industrial Goods index which fell 1.1% W-o-W. Similarly, the Consumer Goods Index declined 0.9% while the Banking and Oil & Gas indices lost 0.6% and 1.0% W-o-W respectively.
• The gainers’ chart was topped by BERGER (+15.0%), BETAGLAS (+10.2%) and ACCESS (+5.4%) while HMARKINS (-22.9%), FIRSTALU (-19.6%) and COURTVIL (-17.4%) declined the most.
Market This Week (Our expectations)
• The Afrinvest Weekly sentiment indicator weakened to 0.3 points from 1.0 points recorded the previous week due to weaker trading activity measured by volume which offset improvement in market breadth to 0.6x from 0.3x the prior week.
• Following 2 successive weeks of decline in the broader index, we anticipate a rebound this week as indicated by already indicated by strengthening market breadth. Furthermore, we believe bargain hunting by investors and selective positioning ahead of the full year earnings season will also drive market performance.
• Performance of the stocks in our February Watch List was largely positive last week as all appreciated W-o-W save WAPCO which closed the week flat. ACCESS (+5.4%) and ZENITH (+3.6%) led gainers while MANSARD (+3.1%) and UBA (+1.3%) trailed. We retain the five stocks in our Watch List for the current trading week.
