Market Statistics Monday, 21st July, 2014.

Market Cap (N’bn)                     14.127.27

Market Cap                                  (US$’bn) 87.10

NSE All-Share Index                42,784.30
Daily Performance %               0.25
1 Week Performance %          0.34
YTD Performance %               3.52
Daily Volume (Million)           535.08
Daily Value (N’bn)                    4.37
Daily Value (US$’m)               26.97
A Bearish Start- ASI down 25bps
The Nigerian Equity Market commenced the week on a bearish note today, losing 25bps to depress the composite index further to 42,784.39 points. Today’s pullback came amid renewed selloff on blue chip stocks including: Unilever (5.0%), Forte Oil (5.6%) and Seplat (3.8%). Conversely, trading activity was largely impressive as investors expressed initial reaction to the Q2:2014 corporate earnings results. Aggregate volume and value surged 43.0% and 36.4% to 535.1m units and N4.4tn respectively.
Oil and Gas turned Defensive
The Insurance and Banking indices lost 1.4% and 0.5% a piece, amidst the profit taking in the Mansard (4.5%), Continental Reinsurance (2.6%), Skye Bank (3.5%), FBNH (1.8%) and ETI (1.4%). The Oil and Gas Index increased marginally by 0.3%, hence defying today’s bearish sentiment on Seplat. Majorly, Mobil (5.0%), Oando (4.0%) and Total (3.4%) maintained the uptrend, thus explaining today’s rally within the Oil and Gas basket. The Industrial and Consumer indices inched higher, gaining 0.1% apiece.
Market Sentiment Closed Negative
Market breadth closed negative (0.6x — Advancers/ Decliners ratio; 22 Gainers Vs. 38 Losers) – an indication of further weakness in the session ahead. Wema, Redstarex and Cutix gained 1.2%, 6.1% and 5.0% respectively to lead the gainers list. On the flip side, NCR, Unilever and Eterna shed 5.0%, 5.0% and 4.9% respectively to top market laggards. Despite the negative market sentiment suggesting and extended bearish session tomorrow, we anticipate bargain hunters may take advantage of the relatively attractive entry levels. This is likely within counters that have recently posted attractive H1:2014 earnings growth, including: TRANSCORP and WEMA.