Bullish performance persists in days leading to elections… ASI up 4.2% W-o-W

The bullish performance of the equities market persisted into this week as the All Share Index rose 4.2% W-o-W to 32,715.2 points. Investors continued to buy into cheap assets – DANGCEM (+4.6%), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+6.4%) and STANBIC (+3.2%) – bucking consensus expectation for increased sell offs in trading sessions leading to the general elections. We believe sentiments have strengthened due to the increased investor expectation for post-election stability and positive earnings releases.

As a result of increased buying interest, the benchmark index rose on 4 of 5 trading sessions, year to date return improved to 4.1% and market capitalization rose by N442.0bn to N12.2tn. Similarly, activity level improved as average volume and value advanced by 49.7% and 4.7% to 566.4m units and N5.6bn. The top traded stocks by volume were DIAMOND (406.6m units), ACCESS (207.2m units) and ZENITH (194.1m units) while by value GUARANTY (N4.9bn) ZENITH (N4.8bn) and DANGCEM (N2.9bn) led.

Across sectors, performance was equally bullish with 4 of 5 indices advancing W-o-W. The Consumer Goods and Oil & Gas indices gained, up 5.9% and 5.6% respectively due to price appreciation in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+6.4%), NESTLE (+4.3%,) SEPLAT (+10.4%) and OANDO (+20.0%). The Industrial Goods and Banking indices also closed the week positive, up 3.7% and 2.1% on the back of gains in in DANGCEM (+4.6%), WAPCO (+4.4), ETI (+5.1%), UBA (+4.6%) and ZENITH (+1.4%). The Insurance index was the lone loser, down 0.2% due to sell pressures in CUSTODIAN (-2.4%) and NEM (-2.0%).

Investor sentiment measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) strengthened to 2.9x from 2.5x recorded the previous week as 56 stocks advanced against 19 that declined. The best performers this week were WEMA (+45.1%), LIVESTOCK (+44.0%) and DANGFLOUR (+33.6%) while CILEASING (-18.9%), MRS (-9.9%) and ACADEMY (-9.8%) were the worst performers. We expect the direction of market to be largely determined by the election outcomes next week, nonetheless, we expect the market to perform positively based on the sentiments we have observed this week.

Market Statistics Friday, 15th February 2019

Market Cap (N’bn)                                 12,102.5

Market Cap (US$’bn)                                    39.5

NSE All-Share Index                              32,453.69

Daily Performance %                                        0.1

1 Week Performance %                                    3.2

YTD Performance %                                         3.3

Daily Volume (Million)                                    422.7

Daily Value (N’bn)                                              3.7

Daily Value (US$’m)                                        12.2

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