Market/Economic Insight: The Weekly Brief (May 13th – 17th 2019)

With the listing of 20.4 billion ordinary shares of MTN Nigeria’s share at N90 per share last week, the performance of the Nigerian Equity Market closed bullish last week with the index (NSE ASI) trending upward by 0.08% WTD to close at an index level of 28,871.93.  Market capitalization also rose by 17.29% to close at N12.72 trillion.

The Sectoral Performance remained negative, driven mainly by profit-taking seen in all sectors throughout the week. The Banking Sector recorded the highest decline, down by owing to price depreciation in ACCESS (4.31%-9.15%-13.89%) and FCMB.

The MTN Factor: A major driver of the upward move last week was MTN Nigeria‘s shares, as the price grew significantly by 20% from its listing price of N90 on Thursday to N108.90 by close of market on Friday.

Global Trends: In the global space, selected markets traded on a mixed note as investors remain fixated on the US-China trade war. The S&P 500 shed 0.76%, NASDAQ shed 1.27% and China’s CSI 300 shed by 2.19% week-on-week. We expect the bear run to continue in both US and China market until a trade.