NSE ASI up 1.7%

After 3 consecutive days of decline, the benchmark index opened the week positive as investors hunted for bargains in bellwether Banking, Industrial and Consumer Goods companies such as DANGCEM (+2.3%), GUARANTY (+4.4%), UBA (+8.2%), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+1.7%)  and NESTLE (+1.1%). Consequently, the All Share Index added 1.7% to settle at 32,657.30 points while YTD return advanced to 21.5%. Accordingly, investors recovered N185.1bn in value as market capitalization improved to N11.3tn. However, activity in the market was mixed as volume traded dipped 7.5% to N386.2m units and value traded increased 1.7% to N3.3bn.

All Sectors Close in the Green save for Insurance Index
Performance across sectors was bullish as all indices under our coverage closed in the green save for the Insurance index which dipped 0.1% owing to price depreciation in CONTINSURE (-1.6%). The Banking index (+3.2%) appreciated on account of gains in GUARANTY (+4.4%) and UBA (+8.2%). The Industrial Goods index followed, up 1.1% on the back of bargain hunting in DANGCEM (+2.3%). Likewise, the Consumer Goods and Oil & Gas indices also added 0.8% and 0.4% as a result of positive sentiment towards NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+1.7%) and FORTE (+5.0%) respectively.

Investor Sentiment Creeps back to the Positive Region
Investor sentiment improved today as 26 stocks advanced against 20 which declined; thus, market breadth advanced to 1.3x from 0.7x the previous Friday. The best performing stocks were UBA (+8.2%), NEM (+7.2%) and DIAMOND (+6.2%) while OKOMUOIL (-5.0%), JBERGER (-5.0%) and UNILEVER (-5.0%) were the worst performers. As expected, the prices of some value stocks prompted buying interest by investors and we expect the optimism to be sustained in the near term as investors continue to spot opportunities in a fundamentally driven market.
Market Cap (N’bn)                                        11,293.0
Market Cap (US$’bn)                                          36.9
NSE All-Share Index                                   32,657.30
Daily Performance %                                           1.7
Week Performance %                                        (0.8)
YTD Performance %                                         21.5
Daily Volume (Million)                                      386.2
Daily Value (N’bn)                                               3.3
Daily Value (US$’m)                                          10.8