Nigeria Market Watch | June 5th 2015: Nigerian All Share index closed the week positive, up 0.6%

Lagos, Nigeria (Capital Markets in Africa):- The Nigerian All Share index closed the week positive, up 0.6% to close at 33,664.91pts. Market Capitalization also added N67.8bn berthing at N11.5tn. Today’s gain was consequent on appreciations in Banking and Oil & Gas counters — ZENITH BANK (+3.7%) and FORTE OIL (+3.8%) respectively. Market activities was mixed as volume traded softened 3.6% to close 198.4m units while value rose 14.2% to settle at N2.5bn.

Divergent from yesterday’s performance, sector performance was mixed. After 5-day decline, the Oil & Gas index led gains, up 2.0% following appreciations in FORTE OIL (+3.8%) and OANDO (+3.4%). The Banking sector also turned positive today after six days of losses rising 1.8% mostly due to rallies in ZENITH BANK (+3.7%) and GUARANTY (+2.2%). The Consumer Goods index also appreciated 0.1%. On the other hand, marginal depreciation in WAPCO (-0.4%) dragged the Industrial Goods index down by 0.2%. The Insurance index trailed after declining 0.2%.

Following the slightly positive mood today, market breadth also turned positive to 1.4x (advancers/decliners ratio). NEIMEITH (+4.9%), TRANSCORP (+4.8%) and AIR SERVICE (+4.5%) led the 23 advancers today; while VONO (-4.9%), NASCON (-4.1%) and CI LEASING (-4.1%) led the 16 declining stocks.  As a result, market breadth settled at 1.4x. We believe today’s gain was broadly driven by bargain hunters who took advantage of the three days of consecutive losses in the market. We expect market performance in subsequent sessions to remain driven by events in the polity.