Stock market kicks off the Year in green… ASI up 0.7%

The domestic equities market commenced the year on a positive note, driven by bargain hunting in BUACEMENT (+7.3%), STANBIC (+5.6%), and ZENITH (+0.6%). Accordingly, the NGX-ASI rose 0.7% to 43,026.23 points, market capitalisation gained ₦886.9bn to ₦23.2tn while YTD return printed at 0.7%. Trading activity weakened as volume and value traded declined 52.4% and 84.7% respectively to 216.6m units and ₦1.5bn. CHAMS  (29.9m units), WEMABANK (17.1m units), and ZENITH (11.0m units) led by volume while ZENITH (₦278.2m), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (₦232.9m), and GTCO (₦212.5m) led by value.

Performance across sectors within our coverage was mixed as 3 indices lost, 2 gained while the AFR-ICT index closed flat. The Industrial Goods and Banking indices gained 3.0% and 0.4% respectively on account of buying interest in BUACEMENT (+7.3%), WAPCO (+0.2%), STANBIC (+5.6%), and ZENITH (+0.6%). On the flipside, the Consumer Goods index dipped 0.9% following sell pressure on NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-4.0%), DANGSUGAR (-2.6%), and VITAFOAM (-10.0%). Also, the Oil & Gas and Insurance indices fell 0.5% and 0.4% respectively due to losses in ARDOVA (-10.0%), WAPIC (-5.4%), and MBENEFIT (-3.0%). 

Investor sentiment, as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio), weakened to 0.7x from 1.9x as 18 stocks gained while 27 stocks lost. ACADEMY (+10.0%), WEMABANK (+9.7%), and CORNERST (+8.7%) led gainers while ARDOVA (-10.0%), VITAFOAM (-10.0%), and NNFM (-10.0%) led decliners. In the next trading session, we expect the market to sustain this positive momentum as investors cherry-pick on stocks with attractive valuation.