Equity:
The Nigerian Equity market closed the month of August on a positive note. The ASI expanded by 2.51% on a month on month basis, whilst on a year -on-year basis, the losses eased to -5.6%.
On a sectorial basis, telecoms emerged as the best performing sector gaining +20.47% year-to-date, followed by the cement sector (+8.37% year-to-date). Other sectors closed on a negative note including Banking (-16.26%), Brewers (-39.25%), Oil and gas (-60.36%) and food (-16.34%).
Going forward, we anticipate improved local domestic participation in the equity market due to the lower yield environment in the fixed income market. However, we do not expect this to sustain a meaningful rally in the equity market. Against this backdrop, our outlook on equity is now neutral (previous: neutral to negative).
