FBN Securities Nigerian Market Wrap: 28 January 2015

Trading in the local bourse continued on a mixed note today as flashes of optimistic bargain hunting was checked by the broader macro concerns. The market was muted in the first half as buying interest was low while offers piled around previous close in most names, turnover at mid-session was a about 1bln, 47% of that was from block trades of 1.7mln Dangcem ($1.37m) and 1.3mln 7up shares ($1m) local seller and offshore buyer. Subsequent block trades of 28mln Unilever ($5mln), and 1.2mln NB shares helped boost today’s value of N3.67bln ($19m). Local investors were on the buy side in tier II banking names and mid-caps while foreign investors remained net sellers in most market names.

Notable gainers today comprised of Dangcem(+0.32%) which ticked higher on improved foreign buying, local demand in Dangsugar(+1.53%) and PZ(+2.86%) extended gains in both names, the former rallied for the fourth consecutive session and closed on bid. Guaranty recovered from early losses to close +0.92% higher and Guinness advanced +2.32% on light volumes. On the downside, Zenith(-0.53%) and FBNH buckled under intense foreign selling, FBNH lost -0.94% to close near its nine year low, Diamond bank traded well below recent support level of N4.00 ticking at N3.91 before closing at N3.95. NB(-0.61%) purged gains from yesterday

Oando announced a review of its on-going rights offer, the initial offer of about 2.2bln shares at N22 (1 for 4) was altered to 2.9bln shares at N16.50 (1 for 3) to reflect current market realities, the offer however closed today. The market was averse to the change leading the stock to close -1.76% lower.

The index gained +0.16% today cutting ytd loss to -13.70%. We expect market direction to remain mixed in coming sessions.

Source: FBN Securities