NSE ASI up 0.5%

(Afrinvest-) At the close of trade today, the Nigerian Bourse extended gains from last week into the 3rd consecutive trading session, as the All Share Index rose 0.5% against the backdrop of strong bargain hunting in banking stocks such as ZENITH (+3.5%), UBA (+4.9%), ACCESS (+4.9%) and ETI (+3.9%). The Benchmark index thus settled at 32,614.60 points, buoying YTD return to 21.4%. Accordingly, investors gained N53.6bn as market capitalization increased to N11.2tn. However, activity in the market was relatively weak, as volume and value traded dipped 14.3% and 18.1% to 182.1m units and N2.0bn respectively.

Mixed Performance across Sectors
Performance across sectors was mixed as 3 of 5 indices under our coverage closed in the green. The Banking index (3.0%) appreciated the most on account of gains in ZENITH (+3.5%) and UBA (+4.9%). The Oil &Gas index followed, up 0.7% due to positive sentiment towards OANDO (+4.8%), while the Industrial Goods index added 0.3% as a result of price appreciation in MEYER (+4.3%). On the flip side, the Consumer Goods and Insurance indices declined 0.7% and 0.3% on the back of selloffs in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-0.6%) and MANSARD (-4.8%) respectively.

Market Breadth Closes Flat
Market breadth – a gauge of market sentiment – closed flat at 1.6x today as 24 stocks gained while 15 declined. The best performing stocks today were FLOURMILL (+9.7%), CILEASING (+5.0%) and REDSTAREX (+5.0%) while UBN (-8.8%), UPL (-5.0%) and SKYEBANK (-5.0%) were the worst performers. We expect performance to be driven by earnings fundamentals in the near term as Investors will be looking out for half year corporate earnings due to be released in July/August. Outlook for half year earnings remains decidedly positive; hence, we expect some investors to start taking positons in trading sessions ahead.

NASD OTC Exchange Market Activities
In the NASD OTC exchange, nine counters traded with total volume and value of transactions closing at 40,547 units and N4.3m respectively. CSCS (-9.7%) and WAMCO (-6.0%) closed in the red.

Market Statistics Monday, 10th July 2017
Market Cap (N’bn)                                            11,240.6
Market Cap (US$’bn)                                              36.7
NSE All-Share Index                                       32,620.84
Daily Performance %                                               0.5
Week Performance %                                             (0.5)
YTD Performance %                                              21.4
Daily Volume (Million)                                          182.1
Daily Value (N’bn)                                                    2.0
Daily Value (US$’m)                                                6.6