Banking and Industrial Counters Push Nigerian Benchmark Index 5bps Higher

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The equities market closed positive at the end of trade today as the All Share Index (ASI) added 5bps to close at 25,510.01 points. Consequently, market capitalisation advanced N4.6bn to settle at N8.8tn while YTD loss remained at 5.1%.  STANBIC (+2.2%),  WAPCO (+1.9%) and ZENITH (+1.3%) were the major drivers today. Also, market activity improved as volume and value traded rose 41.0% and 82.8% to settle at 349.3m units and N2.3bn respectively.

Mixed Performance across Sectors
Performance across sectors was mixed as 2 sector indices advanced while 3 declined. The gainers’ chart was topped by the Industrial Goods index (+0.9%) following gains recorded in WAPCO (+1.9%). Similarly, the Oil & Gas index improved 0.1% on the back of price appreciation in OANDO (+2.0%). On the flipside, the Consumer Goods, Insurance and Banking indices slid 0.1% apiece, dragged by losses in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-0.4%), AIICO (-3.6%) and GUARANTY (-0.7%).

Investor Sentiment Improves
Investor sentiment improved today as market breadth settled at 1.6x (from 1.2x yesterday) after 18 stocks advanced against 11 declining stocks. The best performing stocks were CILEASING (+8.5%),NASCON (+5.3%) and TRANCORP (+3.9%) while UNIONDICON (-5.0%), AIICO (-3.6%) and FORTE(-1.5%) declined the most. Next week, we expect market performance to continue to fluctuate in margins as investors await the release of Q1:2017 earnings reports.

NASD OTC Exchange Market Activities
In the NASD OTC exchange, total volume and value of transactions traded stood at 555,098 units and N5.5m respectively. WAMCO (+1.4%), AFRILAND (+5.7%) and CSCS (+9.9) closed in the green whileAIRLIQ (-5.0%) was the sole decliner.

Source: Afriinvestor Research Website