Nigerian Equity Markets | 17 Sep 2015: Nigerian Market Extends Gains to Day-2 …NSE ASI Up 17bps

Lagos, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa — The Nigerian Bourse sustained an uptrend for the second consecutive day as the All Share Index advanced 0.2% to close trading for the day at 30,410. 39 points. The positive performance was majorly driven by rallies in top banking counters; such as ZENITH (+2.3%) and GUARANTY (+0.4%), and UACN (+4.8%) the Conglomerate space giant. In the same vein, market capitalization increased N16.4bn to berth at N10.5tn. Activity level today also strengthened as volume and value traded grew 24.8% to 211.9m units and 92.4% to N2.7bn respectively.

The Banking sector index rose 0.6%, outperforming peer indices on the back of price appreciation in ZENITH (+2.3%) and GUARANTY (+0.4%). The Insurance and Consumer goods indices were also up 0.1% apiece against the backdrop of gains in CONTINSURE (+4.4%) and NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+0.4%). On the other hand, the Industrial goods index, dipped 0.4% consequent on losses in WAPCO (-1.0%), while the Oil & Gas index was marginally down 3bps.

Investor sentiments stayed positive today as market Breadth settled at 1.2x due to 23 stocks advancing against 19 stocks. The Best performing stocks for the day were OKOMUOIL (+5.0%), JBERGER (+5.0%) and UNITYBNK (+4.8%) while PREMBREW (-4.8%), FIDSON (-4.8%) and COSTAIN (-4.7%) were the worst performing stocks. Today’s performance was primarily driven by increased sentiment for value stocks most especially in banking space. We believe this may be anchored on developments in the global and local economy amid expectation for the announcement of cabinet members soon.

Source: Afrinvest (West Africa) Limited Research Team