Gains in Bellwethers drive local bourse… ASI up 33bps 

In today’s trading session, gains in bellwethers – WAPCO (+9.9%), UBA (+4.0%) and ETI (+2.9%) drove the All Share Index (ASI) by 33bps to 32,480.89 points. Hence, market capitalization rose by N38.6bn to N11.9tn while YTD loss improved to -15.1%. Also, activity level strengthened as volume and value traded rose 18.9% and 32.1% to 226.0m units and N2.3bn respectively. NEM (39.1m units), FIRSTALUM (36.5m units) and ZENITH (20.7m units) led the top traded stocks by volume while ZENITH (N428.8m), GUARANTY (N357.5m) and SEPLAT (N322.4m) led top traded stocks by value.

Sector performance was largely bullish for the third consecutive day as 3 of 5 indices under our coverage advanced. The Industrial Goods index led gainers, up 2.4% supported by price appreciation in WAPCO (+9.9%) and BERGER (+5.3%). Similarly, the Banking index advanced 0.7% on the back of buying interest in UBA (+4.0%), ETI (+2.8) and ACCESS (0.7%) while a rally in DANGSUGAR  (+4.6%) and GUINNESS (+2.3%) buoyed the Consumer Goods index by 0.2%. On the flip side, the Insurance and Oil & Gas indices fell 0.3% apiece following profit taking in PRESTIGE (-9.7%) AIICO (-4.7%) and SEPLAT (-1.1%).

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) weakened to 1.7x from 1.9x recorded the last session as 25 stocks appreciated against 15 decliners. WAPCO (+9.9%), FIRSTALUM (+9.7%) and UACN (+8.8%) were best performing while PRESTIGE (-9.7%), UNITYBNK (-9.3%) and HONYFLOUR (-6.2%) led laggards. Today, buying sentiment was sustained as we anticipated. We expect this sentiment to remain tomorrow, the close of the week.

Market Statistics Thursday, 20th September 2018

Market Cap (N’bn)                             11,858.0

Market Cap (US$’bn)                               38.7

NSE All-Share Index                        32,480.89

Daily Performance %                                0.3

Week Performance %                              1.4

YTD Performance %                            (15.1)

Daily Volume (Million)                         225.9

Daily Value (N’bn)                                  2.3

Daily Value (US$’m)                              7.6