Bullish run persists on mild bargain hunting… ASI up 0.1%

Performance in today’s trading session was slightly bullish, up 0.1% due to sustained bargain hunting on – STANBIC (+2.0%) GUARANTY (+0.7%) and FBNH (1.4%). Consequently, investors’ wealth increased slightly by N11.0bn as market capitalisation rose to N11.5tn. Activity level improved as volume and value traded advanced 3.9% and 181.2% to 190.3m units and N2.9bn respectively. Banking stocks dominated trading activity as GUARANTY (N1.7bn), ZENITH (N473.2m) and FBNH (N140.9m) were the top traded by value while for the top traded by volume we also had GUARANTY (N49.2m), ZENITH (N20.7m) and FBNH (N18.9m).

4 of 5 sectors under our coverage advanced in today’s trading session largely on the back of continued bargain hunting. The Insurance index led gainers up 1.0% due to gains in AIICO (+3.1%) while the Oil & Gas index also inched 0.4% following price appreciation in OANDO (+3.1%). Similarly, the Banking and Industrial Goods indices appreciated 0.2% apiece, following gains in GUARANTY (+0.7%), ACCESS (+1.6%), and BETAGLASS (+10.0%). On the flip side, the Consumer Goods index was down by 0.1% owing to price depreciation in DANGSUGAR (-3.2%) and HONYFLOUR (-2.4%).

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) strengthened to 1.8x from 0.9x recorded yesterday as 21 stocks advanced while 12 declined. The best performing stocks were BETAGLAS (+10.0%), ABCTRANS (+8.3%) and CHIPLC (+6.9%) while the worst performers were led by AGLEVENT (-6.9%), NAHCO (-3.7%) and DANGSUGAR (-3.2%). We expect bargain hunting to further persist but do not rule out the possibility of sell-offs in subsequent trading sessoins as we approach the general elections.

Market Statistics Tuesday, 5th February 2019

Market Cap (N’bn)                                11,475.9

Market Cap (US$’bn)                                  37.5

NSE All-Share Index                            30,773.57

Daily Performance %                                    0.1

1 Week Performance %                              (1.3)

YTD Performance %                                   (2.1)

Daily Volume (Million)                              183.2

Daily Value (N’bn)                                        2.9

Daily Value (US$’m)                                    9.6

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