Market closes flattish as banking stocks rebound… NSE ASI up 2bps

The Local Bourse extended gains from the previous session as the All Share Index (ASI) marginally rose 2bps to close at 42,158.32 points while year to date YTD return stayed flat at 10.2 per cent. Accordingly, investors gained N3.6 billion as market capitalisation closed at N15.1 trillion. Today’s positive performance was on the back of a rebound in banking stocks- GUARANTY (+1.6 %), ZENITH (+1.5%) and UBA (+3.3%). Similarly, activity level strengthened as volume and value traded rose 11.8 per cent and 15.0 per cent to 570.3 million units and N5.3 billion respectively.

Sector performance today was mixed as 2 of 5 indices closed in the green, while 3 trended southwards. The Banking and Insurance indices advanced 1.1 per cent and 0.7 per cent respectively due to gains in GUARANTY (+1.6 %), ZENITH (+1.5%), CONTINSURE (+0.1%) and PRESTIGE (+0.02%). On the flipside, the Oil & Gas index declined the most, shedding 1.2 per cent as investors sold off positions in CONOIL (-9.6%) and MOBIL (-4.5%). The Consumer and Industrial Goods indices trailed, down 0.9 per cent apiece, dragged by price depreciation in NESTLE (-0.7%), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-2.7%), WAPCO (-1.8%) and CCNN (-4.3%).

Investor sentiment measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) improved to 0.7x from 0.5x recorded yesterday as 27 stocks advanced against 30 decliners. The top performing stocks were JAPAUL OIL (+5.7%), CHAMPION (+4.8%) and CONTINSURE (+1.6%) while the worst performers were CONOIL (-9.6%), UNIC (-6.2%) and FIDELITY (-5.7%). Despite the marginal gain today, the improvement in sentiment shows the market is gradually stabilising. Thus, we expect performance in subsequent trading sessions to remain positive

Market Statistics Wednesday, 21st February 2018
Market Cap (N’bn)                                                 15,129.1
Market Cap (US$’bn)                                                   49.4
NSE All-Share Index                                             42,158.32
Daily Performance %                                                     0.0
Week Performance %                                                   (0.0)
YTD Performance %                                                     10.2
Daily Volume (Million)                                                  570.3
Daily Value (N’bn)                                                            5.3
Daily Value (US$’m)                                                      17.4

*Afrinvest