Nigerian Equity Markets | 05 Nov 2015: Nigerian Equity ends in a close call… NSE ASI marginally Sheds 1bps

Lagos, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa — Activities in the Nigerian equities market ended almost flat today after the benchmark index slipped by just 1bps at the end of trade to settle at 29,030.97pts. This was against the declines in market bellwethers — NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-0.7%), UNILEVER (-5.3%) and ZENITH BANK (-1.1%). Market capitalization equally declined N505.2m to settle at N10.0tn. Conversely, market activities measured by volume and value rose 57.1% and 45.4% to 285.2m units and N3.0bn respectively.

Performance across sectors was mixed with the Insurance sector index recording the highest gain of 0.7% against increases recorded in MANSARD (+2.8%) and AIICO (+3.5%). For the 3rd consecutive day, the Oil & Gas index also improved 0.6% on account of further correction in OANDO (+5.4%). On the other hand, sector decliners were led by the Industrial Goods sector which closed 0.5% lower mainly against sell-offs in WAPCO (-1.0%). After shedding 14bps today, the Consumer Goods and Banking indices both continued southward due to declines in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-0.7%) and ZENITH (-1.1%).

Though still within the negative region, market breadth improved further to 0.8x (vs. 0.7x yesterday) as 19 stocks advanced against 25 declining stocks. Top gainers were INTERNATIONAL BREWERIES (+4.9%), VONO (+4.6%) and ETERNA (+4.3%) while highest decliners were DANGOTE FLOUR, CAVERTON and FIDSON with -4.9% each. We believe the sustained moderation in losses, as well as improvement in sentiments as observed today further, signals a glimmer of hope for the equities market in the near term. On the basis of the above, we expect investors to further cash in on cheaply valued stocks.  

Source: Afrinvest (West Africa) Limited Research Team