Stock Market rebounds on rally in DANGCEM as ASI up 25bps

The local bourse rebounded today as the All Share Index (ASI) rose 25bps to close at 40,874.09 points following buying interest in DANGCEM (+1.4%) and OANDO (+6.1%); ex-DANGCEM, ASI would have lost 22bps. Accordingly, investors wealth increased by N36.7 billion as market capitalisation rose to N14.8 trillion while YTD gain also inched to 6.9 per cent. Activity level strengthened, as volume and value of shares traded grew 221.7 per cent and 106.5 per cent to 740.4 million units and N8.9 billion respectively. FCMB (204.1m units), OANDO (185.5m units) and ZENITH (70.7m units) were the top traded by volume while GUARANTY (N3.1bn), ZENITH (N1.9bn) and OANDO (N1.8bn) topped the value chart.

Performance across sectors was largely bearish as the Industrial Goods index emerged the lone gainer, up 0.8% on the back of gains recorded in DANGCEM (+1.4%) and WAPCO (+0.4%). On the flipside, the Insurance index was the worst performer – down 0.8 per cent due to sell offs in NEM (-3.4%) and AIICO (-2.9%). The Oil & Gas index followed, closing lower by 0.6 per cent as investors booked profit in 11 PLC (-4.7%) while the Consumer Goods and Banking indices also shed 0.3 per cent and 0.1 per cent on account of price depreciation in INTEBREW (-1.9%), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-0.2%), GUARANTY (-0.8%) and DIAMOND (-2.0%).

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) weakened to 0.8x from 1.3x recorded yesterday as 18 stocks advanced while 23 declined. The top gainers today were OANDO (+6.1%), COURTEVILLE (+5.0%) and ETERNA (+4.8%) while the worst performers were FIRSTALUM (-7.5%), 11 PLC (-4.7%) and FCMB (-4.0%). Following the kickoff of Q1: 2018 earnings season, we expect market performance in the near term to be predicated on investors assessment of earnings results. As a result, we maintain our expectation that bargain hunting will continue to buoy market performance.

Market Statistics Thursday, 19th April 2018