Banking stocks drive benchmark index higher… ASI Up 0.5%

Today, the domestic bourse performed positively, rising 0.5% to 30,878.56 points following gains in banking stocks – GUARANTY (+2.8%), ZENITH (+0.9%) and FIDELITY (+9.6%). Consequent on this, YTD loss improved to -1.8% while market capitalization increased by N52.8bn to settle at N11.5tn. Activity level also strengthened as volume and value traded advanced 53.5% and 21.5% to 376.3m units and N2.9bn respectively. The top traded stocks by volume were ACCESS (155.8m units), UBA (62.1m units) and FCMB (32.6m units); while the top traded stocks by value were ACCESS (N875.2m), ZENITH (N678.8m) and UBA (N450.8m).

Despite the positive performance of the broader market, 4 of 5 sector indices under our coverage closed in the red. The Banking index was the lone gainer advancing 1.6% following gains in GUARANTY (+2.8%), ZENITH (+0.9%) and FIDELITY (+9.6%). On the flip side, the Insurance index shed 0.2% dragged by NEM (-4.4%) and SOVRENINS (-4.6%); while the Oil & Gas index declined by 0.1% due to profit taking activities in FORTE (-1.7%). Similarly, the Industrial Goods (-4bps) and Consumer Goods (-1bp) indices closed flattish, albeit negative, as price depreciation in WAPCO (-0.4%), DANGFLOUR (-1.6%) and HONYFLOUR (-1.6%) weighed on the indices.

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) stood at 2.1x – a slight decline from yesterday’s 2.6x – as 21 stocks advanced against 10 stocks that declined. The outperforming stocks for the day were FIRSTALUM (+9.7%), FIDELITY (+9.6%) and UNIONDAC (+7.7%) while the least performing stocks for the day were RESORT (-8.3%), SOVRENINS (-4.6%) and UACN (-4.5%). We believe the local bourse may continue to witness buying interest in subsequent sessions as some investors take advantage of the cheap valuation of fundamentally good stocks. Nevertheless, we do not rule out the possibility of speculative trading buoying performance in the near term.

Market Statistics Wednesday, 23rd January 2019 

Market Cap (N’bn)                                            11,514.9

Market Cap (US$’bn)                                               37.6

NSE All-Share Index                                        30,878.56

Daily Performance %                                                0.5

1 Week Performance %                                            1.4

YTD Performance %                                                (1.8)

Daily Volume (Million)                                             376.3

Daily Value (N’bn)                                                       3.0

Daily Value (US$’m)                                                   9.7

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