Equities Market sustains bullish performance for the 3rd consecutive day… NSE ASI up 1.5%

Bargain hunting in bellwethers extended the positive performance in the local bourse to the third consecutive trading session as the NSE All Share Index (ASI) grew 1.5 per cent to close at 38,435.29 points while YTD return pulled out of the negative territory to 0.5 per cent. Today’s positive performance was largely due to buying interest in large cap stocks – NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+5.0%), DANGCEM (+0.9%) and ZENITH (+3.5%). Consequently, investors gained N210.2 billion as market capitalisation rose to N13.9 trillion. Activity level strengthened as the volume and value traded trended 15.7 per cent and 11.9 per cent higher to 393.1 million units and N6.7 billion respectively. The top traded stocks by volume were ZENITH (110.6m), FIDELITY (63.9m) and UBA (22.5m) while ZENITH (N3.1bn), DANGCEM (N677.5m) and SEPLAT (N549.8m) led the top traded stocks by value.

Overall performance across sectors was bullish as all indices under our coverage trended northwards. The Industrial Goods index was the top performer, up 4.2% on the back of gains in DANGCEM (+0.9%) and WAPCO (+9.4%). Trailing were the Consumer Goods, Banking and Insurance indices which rose 2.5 per cent, 1.1 per cent and 1.0 per cent respectively as a result of bargain hunting in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+4.9%), GUINNESS (+5.0%), ZENITH (+3.5%), FIDELITY (+9.9%), CONTINSURE (+4.9%) and AIICO (+4.9%). Lastly, the Oil & Gas index reversed its negative performance from the prior trading session to close 0.6 per cent higher following buying interest in OANDO (+9.7%) and FORTE (+4.2%).

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) remained strong at 2.6x as 41 stocks advanced in contrast to 16 stocks that declined. Today’s top performing stocks were FIDELITY (+9.9%), OANDO (+9.7%) and DIAMOND (+9.5%) while GUINEAINS (-5.0%), MBENEFIT (-5.0%) and NPFMCRFBK (-4.7%) were the worst performers. We maintain our near term positive outlook on the market as we expect sustained bargain hunting by investors to continue to buoy performance.

Market Statistics Wednesday, 6th June 2018

Market Cap (N’bn)                        13,922.4

Market Cap (US$’bn)                          45.5

NSE All-Share Index                   38,435.29

Daily Performance %                           1.5

Week Performance %                        (0.4)

YTD Performance %                           0.5

Daily Volume (Million)                     393.1

Daily Value (N’bn)                              6.7

Daily Value (US$’m)                        21.8