Nigerian Equity Markets | 15 Oct 2015: Nigerian share gains on blue chips… NSE ASI rises 0.1%

Lagos, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa — After staying in the southward region for the most part of the day, the Nigerian equities market reversed downtrend to close 11bps higher and settle at 29,700.08 points on the back of marginal rebound in DANGOTE CEMENT (+0.6%), FORTE OIL (+2.3%) and ETI (+1.8%). Market capitalisation also added N11.0bn to berth at N10.2tn at the close of trade. Market activities equally improved as volume and value added 7.6% and 109.1% to close at 172.8m units and N3.4bn respectively.

It was a broadly positive close for NSE sector indices today. After reversing yesterday’s loss, the Oil & Gas index led the sectors with 0.9% on the increase recorded in FORTE OIL (+2.3%). The Insurance index followed, sustaining its gaining streak into the 5^th consecutive day with 0.5% rise consequent on appreciations in MANSARD (+4.7%) and CUSTODIAN (+2.7%). On the back of gains in DANGOTE CEMENT (+0.6), the Industrial index also added 0.4%. On the other hand, the Banking sector led sector losers having declined 0.7% on decreases in GUARANTY (-1.4%) and ACCESS (-5.0%). The Consumer Goods index maintained losses to its 5^th day with 0.1% against the 4.5% decline in FLOURMILLS.

Given that the increases in bellwethers pushed the index higher, sentiments still remained weak as market breadth stayed down at 0.9x (21 advancers vs. 23 decliners). For the 3^rd consecutive day, OKOMU OIL led the gainers’ chart after appreciating 10.3% today; TRANS EXPRESS (+6.5%) and MANSARD (+4.7%) also made the list while ACCESS BANK, VITAFOAM and BERGER PAINTS topped the losers’ chart with -5.0% a piece. We advise investors to remain cautiously optimistic while trading in current cheaply valued stocks.

Source: Afrinvest (West Africa) Limited Research Team