DANGCEM drives positive market performance… NSE ASI up 26bps

The equities market recovered from yesterday’s negative performance as the All Share Index (ASI) rose 26bps to 44,460.18 points while YTD return advanced to 16.3%. Accordingly, market capitalisation increased N58.9bn to settle at N15.9tn. Today’s performance was largely driven by gains in DANGCEM (+1.9%); ex-DANGCEM the market would have closed 23bps southwards. However, activity level declined as volume and value traded fell 3.3% and 55.7% to close at 630.6m units and N3.4bn respectively.

Largely Negative Sector Performance
Performance across sectors was largely negative as 4 of 5 indices closed in the red. The Insurance index was the biggest loser, down 0.9% following sell offs in WAPIC (-4.0 %) and LAWUNION (-4.6%). The Consumer Goods index followed suit, falling 0.4% due to price depreciation in INTBREW (-4.8%), DANGSUGAR (-1.9%) and NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-0.1%). The Banking and Oil & Gas indices trailed, shedding 0.1% apiece as ACCESS (-2.0%), GUARANTY (-0.2%) and ETERNA (-4.5%) recorded losses. On the flip side, the Industrial Goods index was the lone gainer, up 0.7% following gains in DANGCEM (+1.9%) and CCNN (+4.8%).

Investor Sentiment Softens
Investor sentiment, measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio), softened to 0.6x from 0.8x recorded the previous day consequent on 22 stocks advancing against 35 decliners. The top performing stocks were AIICO (+8.8%), UNILEVER (+5.1%) and UPL (+4.8%) while the worst performers were LASACO (-9.5%), AFRINSURE (-8.3%) and LIVESTOCK (-4.9%). Although the market performed positively today, we expect more profit taking at the close of the week as investor sentiment remains weak.

In the NASD OTC Exchange, total volume and value traded stood at 1,750 units and N194,273 respectively. The SDAFRILAND, SDCSCSPLC and SDFCWAMCO were the only instruments that traded today

Market Statistics Thursday, 1st February 2018
Market Cap (N’bn)                                                  15,954.8
Market Cap (US$’bn)                                                     52.1
NSE All-Share Index                                               44,460.18
Daily Performance %                                                        0.3
Week Performance %                                                        2.1
YTD Performance %                                                         16.3
Daily Volume (Million)                                                      630.6
Daily Value (N’bn)                                                                 3.4
Daily Value (US$’m)                                                            11.2