Equities market records 1st positive performance in H2 2018… NSE ASI up 0.7%

 

The domestic bourse halted a three consecutive day bearish run today as renewed buy interest in market bellwethers buoyed the NSE All Share Index (ASI) 0.7 percent to 37,743.22 points while year to date loss moderated to 1.3 percent. Gains in Dangote Cement (+2.2 percent), Nigerian Breweries (+1.8 percent) and Dangote Sugar (+3.5 percent) pushed the benchmark index higher for the first time in second half year 2018.
Accordingly, investors gained N88.4 billion as market capitalisation rose to N13.7 trillion. Similarly, activity level increased as volume and value traded surged 30.2 percent and 146.8 percent to 497.1 million units and N5.9 billion respectively. The top traded stocks by volume were UBA (294.9 million), Zenith Bank (38.3 million) and Access Bank (34.4 million) while UBA (N3.1 billion), Zenith Bank (N930.7 million) and Guaranty Trust Bank (N546.1 million) were the top traded stocks by value.
Across sectors, performance was mixed as 3 of 5 indices closed in the green. The Industrial Goods index emerged top performer, up 1.3 percent as a result of buy interest in Dangote Cement (+2.2 percent) and CCNN (+4.7 percent). Likewise, the Banking and Consumer Goods indices rose 0.3 percent and 0.2 percent respectively following gains in UBN (+1.7 percent), Sterling Bank (+5.7 percent), Nigerian Breweries (+1.8 percent) and Dangote Sugar (+3.5 percent). On the flipside, the Insurance and Oil & Gas indices declined 1.3 percent and 0.9 percent respectively due to sell-offs in Mutual Benefit Assurance (-5.1 percent), AIICO (-1.5 percent) and Mobil Nigeria (-7.9 percent).
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) strengthened to 1.2x from 0.9x recorded in the preceding session as 23 stocks advanced relative to 20 that declined. The top performing stocks were Multiverse (+10.0 percent), Hallmark Insurance (+9.7 percent) and Japaul Oil (+8.3 percent) while Capital Oil (-9.1 percent), NEM (-8.8 percent) and Champion Breweries (-8.0 percent) were the worst performers.