(Afrinvest). The Nigerian equities market extended gains to the 9th consecutive session as the All Share Index (ASI) rose 0.4% to 33,436.61 points, further buoying Year-to-Date return to +24.4%. Much like yesterday, today’s performance was largely bolstered by the sustained rally in Consumer Goods stocks – NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+1.1%), NESTLE (+1.8%) and UNILEVER (+5.0%) – as well as DANGCEM (+0.4%). Consequently, market capitalization rose N46.5bn to N11.5tn. However, activity level was mixed as volume traded inched 0.2% higher to 323.4m units while value traded fell 30.0% to N1.8bn.
Mixed Performance across Sectors
Performance across sectors was mixed as three of five indices we track declined while two advanced. The Insurance index dipped the most, down 1.7 per cent due to depreciation in MANSARD (-4.9%) and CUSTODYINS (-4.8%), while weaker sentiment towards FORTE (-4.2%) and sustained sell pressure on OANDO (-0.3%) weighed on the Oil & Gas index which declined 0.6 per cent. In the same vein, the Banking index slid 0.3% due to profit taking in ZENITH (-1.9%) and ACCESS (-0.8%). On the contrary, the Consumer and Industrial Goods indices rose 1.4 per cent and 0.4 per cent on the back of gains in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+1.1%) and DANGCEM (+0.4%) respectively.
Investor Sentiment Strengthens
Investor sentiment as mirrored by the market breadth (advancers/decliners ratio) improved to 1.3x (from 0.8x recorded yesterday) as 24 stocks advanced against 19 that declined. At the top of the gainers’ chart were HONYFLOUR (+8.3%), UBN (+5.0%) and JBERGER (+5.0%) while MAYBAKER (-5.0%), MANSARD (-4.9%) and CUSTODYINS (-4.8%) topped the losers’ chart. We expect the rebound in market breadth, which suggests an upturn in investor sentiment towards equities, to persist in the near term as market performance remains largely driven by expectations of positive half year earnings reports.
NASD OTC Exchange Market Activities
In the NASD OTC exchange, two counters traded – WAMCO and CSCS – with total volume and value of transactions closing at 107,461 units and N968,009.6 respectively. CSCS accounted for 98.0% of total volume traded.
Market Statistics Tuesday, 18th July 2017
Market Cap (N’bn) 11,524.0
Market Cap (US$’bn) 37.7
NSE All-Share Index 33,436.61
Daily Performance % 0.4
Week Performance % 1.9
YTD Performance % 24.4
Daily Volume (Million) 323.5
Daily Value (N’bn) 1.9
Daily Value (US$’m) 6.3
