Local Bourse Maintains Positive Close… NSE ASI Gains 42bps

The local bourse maintained a positive close today as the All Share Index (ASI) rose 42bps to 44,493.79 points while YTD return expanded to 16.3%. Accordingly, investors gained N67.1bn in value as market capitalization settled at N15.9tn. Performance was largely driven by buying interest in DANGCEM (+0.8%), STANBIC (+2.2%) and ETI (+9.3%). Similarly, activity level improved as volume and value traded inched 53.0% and 26.4% to 877.0m units and N7.4bn respectively.

Performance across sectors was largely mixed as 3 of 5 indices under our coverage closed northwards. The Insurance index appreciated the most, up 0.7% driven by gains in WAPIC (+7.8%), AIICO (+3.2%) and NEM (+1.1%). The Industrial Goods and Banking indices followed closely, rising 0.6% and 0.5% respectively due to a rally in DANGCEM (+0.8%), DIAMOND (+10.0%) and GUARANTY (+0.5%). On the contrary, the Oil & Gas index shed 0.6% as SEPLAT (-1.1%) recorded losses. Also, price depreciation in NESTLE (-2.0%) and UNILEVER (-0.7%) pulled the Consumer Goods index 0.3% lower.

Market breadth (advance/decline ratio) which measures investor sentiment, weakened to 1.4x from 3.4x recorded the previous trading day as 34 stocks advanced relative to 24 decliners. The best performers were DIAMOND (+10.0%), SKYE (+10.0%) and STERLING (+10.0%) while ABCTRANS (-8.3%), ROYALEX (-8.3%) and FTNCOCOA (-8.0%) led laggards. In the near term, we expect performance to remain largely positive as the earnings season draws closer.

In the NASD OTC Exchange, the SDFCWAMCO was the only instrument that traded. Total volume and value traded was 11,650 units and N1.8m respectively

Market Statistics Tuesday, 30th January 2018
Market Cap (N’bn)                                              15,949.7
Market Cap (US$’bn)                                                 52.1
NSE All-Share Index                                           44,493.79
Daily Performance %                                                    0.4
Week Performance %                                                   0.2
YTD Performance %                                                   16.3
Daily Volume (Million)                                                877.0
Daily Value (N’bn)                                                          7.4
Daily Value (US$’m)                                                     24.3