Nigerian Equity Markets | 16 Sep 2015: Nigerian Equity Market Rebounds at Close of Trading …NSE ASI up 16bps

Lagos, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa — The Nigerian equities market rebounded from its previous negative close as the Benchmark index- All Share Index- reversed losses, gaining 0.2% to close for the day at 30, 359.47 points. Increased interest in UBN (+3.7%), ZENITH (+2.5%) and GUARANTY (+2.2%) lifted the market as investors gained a total of N16.4bn to bring market capitalization to N10.4tn. Market activity however weakened today as volume and value traded fell 59.0% and 40.0%  to close at 169.8m units and N1.4bn apiece.

The performance of the various sectors was mixed today as the Consumer Goods and Insurance indices depreciated 0.4% and 0.2% on account of profit taking in GUINNESS (-4.4%) and NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-0.4%) for the former, and CONTINSU (-4.3%) for the latter. On the flipside, the Banking sector index appreciated the most (+1.5%) on the back of gains in ZENITH (+2.5%) and GUARANTY (+2.2%). Similarly, the Oil & Gas index advanced 0.3% while the Industrial index closed marginally up 1bp.

Sentiments in the market as measured by market breadth (advancers vs decliners ratio) settled at 1.2x consequent on 26 stocks that advanced against 21 declining stocks. The best performing stocks today were ETERNA (+9.4%), ETRANZANCT (+5.0%) and CADBURY (+5.0%) while UNITY (-8.1%), FCMB (-4.5%) and GUINNESS (-4.4%) were the worst performing stocks at the close of trade. We believe the reduced activity in the market today may be linked to the expectations from the FOMC meeting beginning today. At the end of the meeting, the US Federal Reserve (FED) is anticipated to make a major call on whether or not to hike interest rates for the first time in close to ten years. Thus, we advise investors to trade cautiously.

Source: Afrinvest (West Africa) Limited Research Team