Nigeria Market Watch | May 26th 2015: Nigerian stock market reverses 5-Day loss…NSE ASI gains 43bps

Lagos, Nigeria (Capital Markets in Africa):- The Nigerian Stock market closed in the green today after posting losses for 5 consecutive trading days. NSE ASI gained 0.4% to close at 34,298.64 points. Today’s positive close was largely driven by gains in DANGOTE CEMENT (+1.1%) and FBN HOLDING (+2.2%). Market capitalization also improved N49.9bn to N11.7tn. In like manner, market activity increased as value and volume traded both advanced 34.1% and 145.2% to close N3.7bn and 540.6m units respectively.

Consumer Goods Index still in the Red
Sector performance was dominantly bullish. Oil & Gas index improved the most, up 0.7% on the back of price appreciation in FORTE OIL (+4.1%). The Industrial Goods index followed with 0.5% return, even as the Banking sector (+0.4) and Insurance (+4bps) indices drove northwards. On the contrary, the Consumer Goods index (-0.5%) extended losses to the sixth consecutive trading session on the back of losses in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-1.3%) and HONEY FLOUR (-2.2%).

Market to Extend today’s Bullish Close
Market breadth closed positive today (1.4x) as 26 stocks advanced while 18 stocks declined. VONO (+9.7%) maintained its position at the top of the advancers’ list for the third consecutive day, reaching a 6-day RSI of 93.5 (an overbought region) as investors stayed bullish on Penny Stocks. VONO was followed by UNITY BANK (+5.4%) and COSTAIN (+4.9%) on the top advancers’ list. The market laggards were MAY & BAKER (-4.8%), LIVESTOCK (-3.7%) and NEM (-3.4%). We suspect investors’ appetite for equities to improve further ahead of May 29.

Source: Afrinvest (West Africa) Limited Research Team.