Zenith, UBA, Access, Gtbank drive stock market rebounds as ASI up 0.2%

The Nigerian Stock Market shook off losses from yesterday’s trading session as renewed buy interest in banking stocks drove the benchmark index 0.2 per cent higher to settle at 36,688.91 points while YTD loss moderated to 4.1 per cent. Consequently, gains in ZENITH (+2.6%), UBA (+5.9%), ETI (+2.3%), ACCESS (+3.1%) and GUARANTY (+0.4%) drove market performance. As a result, investors gained N128.5 billion as market capitalisation grew to N13.4 trillion. Conversely, activity level weakened as volume and value traded declined 5.9 per cent and 41.8 per cent to 225.8 million units and N2.9 billion respectively. Today’s top traded stocks by volume were NAHCO (36.2m), UBA (28.7m) and FBNH (26.0m) while GUARANTY (N556.0m), NESTLE (N411.0m) and UBA (N270.9m) were the most traded stocks by value.

Across sectors, performance was mixed as 2 of 5 indices under our watch closed in the green. The Banking index rallied, up 2.4 per cent, following buy interest in ZENITH (+2.6%), UBA (+5.9%), ETI (+2.3%), ACCESS (+3.1%) and GUARANTY (+0.4%). Similarly, the Insurance index rose 0.6 per cent on the back of gains in CONTINSURE (+8.3%), WAPIC (+7.7%), LASACO (+9.1%) and MBENEFIT (+5.1%). On the flipside, the Consumer Goods index closed in the red as a result of continued sell-offs in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-2.9%) and GUINNESS (-2.1%). The Industrial Goods and Oil & Gas indices trailed, down 0.5% and 0.3% respectively, largely due to losses in DANGCEM (-0.4%), WAPCO (-0.7%), OANDO (-4.3%) and ETERNA (-1.6%).

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) strengthened to 1.4x from 0.9x recorded in the preceding session as 23 stocks advanced relative to 16 that declined. The top gainers were PORTPAINT (+9.8%), UAC-PROP (+9.7%) and LASACO (+9.1%) while NSLTECH (-10.0%), FLOURMILL (-5.4%) and OANDO (-4.3%) were the worst performers. In line with our expectation, the market rebounded today as investors took advantage of the attractive pricing in the market. Hence, we expect the benchmark index to close the week in the green as investor sentiment stays positive.

Market Statistics Thursday, 2nd August 2018

Market Cap (N’bn)                                    13,391.5

Market Cap (US$’bn)                                      43.7

NSE All-Share Index                               36,688.91

Daily Performance %                                        0.2

Week Performance %                                      0.7

YTD Performance %                                     (4.1)

Daily Volume (Million)                                 225.8

Daily Value (N’bn)                                          2.9

Daily Value (US$’m)                                      9.5