Local Bourse extends positive run… NSE ASI up 9bps

The local bourse today extended its positive run to the third session – largely due to price appreciation in DANGCEM – as the All Share Index (ASI) gained 9bps to close at 41,306.02 points while YTD return rose to 8.0%. Ex-DANGCEM, market would have closed down 85bps. Accordingly, investors wealth increased as market capitalization rose by N13.7bn to close at N14.9tn. Other drivers of today’s performance were UBN (+4.0%), 11 PLC (+9.6%) and UBA (+1.3%). Activity level, however, was mixed as volume traded declined by 38.7% to 276.2m while value traded trended up 38.9% to N6.9bn. Today’s top traded stocks by volume were UBA (52.3m), GUARANTY (42.3m) and ZENITH (30.1m) while top traded stocks by value were DANGCEM (N2.1bn), GUARANTY (N1.9bn) and ZENITH (N832.4m).

Sector performance was bullish as 3 of 5 indices under our coverage closed up. The Oil & Gas index led gainers up 1.2% due to gains in 11PLC (+9.6%). The Banking index trailed as price appreciation in UBN (+4.0%) and UBA (+1.3%) drove the index higher by 0.6% while buying interest in DANGCEM (+0.8%) pushed the Industrial Goods index northwards by 0.3%. On the other hand, the Consumer Goods index led laggards as losses in NESTLE (-1.8%) and NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-0.7%) dragged the index lower by 1.1%. The insurance index also closed in the red losing 59bps as sell-offs in CONTINSURE (-2.6%) and WAPIC (-3.6%) pulled the index southwards.

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) strengthened from 1.1x to 1.5x as 23 stocks gained against 15 stocks  that declined. The top gainers for the day were 11PLC (+9.6%), WEMA (+9.5%) and C&I LEASING (9.2%) while DANGFLOUR (-9.4%), CADBURY (-4.7%) and PRESTIGE (-3.9%) led the laggards. We maintain our bullish medium term outlook as attractive entry opportunities continue surface in the market.

Market Statistics Wednesday, 2nd May 2018

Market Cap (N’bn)

14,962.3

Market Cap (US$’bn)

48.9

NSE All-Share Index

41,306.02

Daily Performance %

0.1

Week Performance %

1.4

YTD Performance %

8.0

Daily Volume (Million)

276.2

Daily Value (N’bn)

6.9

Daily Value (US$’m)

22.5