Nigeria’s equity positive momentum tapers: 19 Feb 2015

NSEASI up 36bps
There was a moderation in gains today in the Nigerian Equity Market as the All Share Index advanced 36bps and closed at 29,282.04pts after trade. Market capitalisation also added N34.9bn to close at N9.8tn. Despite the sell down in Dangote Cement (1.8%) which weighted down the market, gains in Nestle (3.6%), Lafarge (4.9%) and Nigerian Breweries (1.1%) delivered the marginal appreciation in the benchmark index today. As today’s market performance was largely driven by profit taking, market activities increased 33.0% to close 564.3m units by volume and 74.6% to close N6.1bn by value.

Banking Index emerges Lone Sector Decliner
Sector performance was mainly positive today as the Banking Index emerged lone loser with a marginal decline of 0.1% – attributable to profit taking in Zenith (2.3%) and UBA (0.6%). The Oil & Gas index paced sector advancers, appreciating 2.8% on the back of gains recorded in Forte Oil (3.2%) and Seplat (5.0%). The Industrial Goods sector trailed with 1.5% as Lafarge and Cutix improved 4.9% and 2.0% a piece. The Consumer Goods and Insurance indices also advanced 1.4% and 0.3% respectively.

Market Sentiments stay Positive
Akin to the moderation in gains today, market breadth also declined, though still positive at 1.9x (25 advancers vs. 13 decliners). The gainers’ chart today was led by Okomu Oil (10.2%), May & Baker (9.8%) and Presco (5.0%) while Julius Berger (5.1%), Boc Gas (4.9%) and Premier Breweries (4.7%) topped the losers’ list. The moderation in market performance was majorly driven by profit taking activities by short term investors. While we expect profit taking to intensify in tomorrow’s trading session, this will also provide an entry opportunity for long term investors.

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