Nigerian Equity Markets | 4 Sep 2015: Nigerian Market Sinks ends the week stronger ….

Lagos, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa — The Nigerian Equities market ended the week stronger, closing the last trading session for the week 0.4% higher after the All Share Index closed at 29,511.08 points. Market capitalisation equally improved N40.3bn to settle at N10.1tn for the week. Today’s gain in index is attributable to appreciations in banking counters — ZENITH (+3.9%), UBA (+10.1%) and FBNH (+5.0%). Market activities were however mixed as volume advanced 1.4% to 277.6m units while value declined 7.3% to N2.7bn.

Sector indices also closed in a mix today with the Banking basket leading gains. The Oil & Gas basket followed with 1.3% attributable to increases recorded in OANDO (+8.5%) and SEPLAT (+0.4%). The Insurance index also advanced 0.2%. On the other hand, against decline recorded in DANGCEM (-0.8%), the Industrial Goods basket led sector losers after shedding 0.5% while Consumer goods followed with a decline of 0.4%. 

Market breadth, measured by the ratio of advancers to decliners remained positive at 1.8x after 32 stocks gained and 18 declined. At the close of trade, UBA (+10.1%), OANDO (+8.5%) and TRANSCORP (+6.1%) emerged the highest gaining stocks while GUINNESS (-7.7%), SKYE (-6.7%) and COSTAIN (-5.0%) topped the losers’ chart. After two consecutive days of losses which we believe was mainly driven by Cement stocks, today’s positive close indicated further interest in equities ahead of ministerial announcement by President Buhari later in the month. Hence, we advise investors to continue to be cautious while maintaining interest in tickers with sound fundamentals.

Source: Afrinvest (West Africa) Limited Research Team