Nigerian Bourse Halts 3-Day Downtrend …Benchmark Index up 5bps

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The local bourse bucked bearish trend observed in the last three trading sessions as buy an interest in DANGCEM (+0.7%), GUARANTY (+1.4%), UBA (+0.8%) and ACCESS (+0.8%) drove the benchmark index 5bps northwards to settle at 25,460.45 points. Accordingly, market capitalization improved by N4.8bn to settle at N8.8tn while YTD return steadied at –5.3%. Activity level was mixed as volume surged 67.9% to 347.8m units while value traded waned 10.3% to N1.4m in 2,934 deals.

Mixed Sector Performance
Performance across sectors was mixed as 3 sectors gained while 2 declined. Although DANGCEM(+0.7%) propelled the broader index, the Industrial Goods index was surprisingly dragged by WAPCO(-5.9%) while the loss in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-0.7%) weighed on Consumer Goods Index (-0.3%). The Banking index appreciated 0.7% as a result of gains in GUARANTY (+1.4%) and UBA (+0.8%). Likewise, the Insurance index improved by 0.2% owing to gains in AIICO (+3.5%). Price appreciation inOANDO (+0.6%) drove the Oil & Gas index 4bps higher.

Investor Sentiment still Negative
Market breadth (advancers/decliners ratio) improved slightly, settling at 0.8x (from 0.6x yesterday) as 11 stocks appreciated against a total of 13 decliners. Top gainers were NEIMETH (+4.9%), AIRSERVICE(+4.6%) and VITAFOAM (+4.5%) while WAPCO (-5.9%), AGLEVENT (-4.9%) and UAC-PROP (-4.2%) led laggards. In line with our expectation, today’s market performance was largely driven by interest in market bellwethers following three consecutive days of decline. We expect the market to trade in similar trend tomorrow.

Source: Afrinvestor Research Nigeria