Nigeria Market Watch | June 11th 2015: Nigerian Equities Rebound from 3-Day Losing Streak… NSE ASI gains 28bps

Lagos, Nigeria (Capital Markets in Africa):- Nigerian equities rebounded from a three-day losing streak as the All Share Index (ASI) closed 28bps up at 33,556.35 points while Market Capitalization added N32.1bn to berth at N11.5tr. Sustained positive investors sentiment for Consumer Goods stocks — NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+1.5%), NESTLE (+0.2%) and PZ (+8.7%) as well as bargain hunting in Banking large caps — ZENITH (+3.5%) and GUARANTY (+0.4%) majorly accounted for the positive close of the benchmark index. Market activity however eased as aggregate volume and value traded declined 73.8% and 1.8% to close at 154.1m units and N4.0bn respectively.

Looking at the sector performance today was largely mixed as only two of the five major sector indices closed positive whilst three closed weaker. The Banking Index led gains, rising 1.1% on bargain hunting in ZENITH (+3.5%) and GUARANTY (+0.4%). Similarly, the Consumer Goods index appreciated 0.9% today owing to the rally in PZ (+8.7%) and NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+1.5%). This boosted the Month to Date (MTD) return of the sector index to 0.8%, the best of the five sector indices. The Insurance Index however retracted, shedding 1.5% after selloffs in MANSARD (-4.1%) and WAPIC (-3.7%); same as the Oil and Gas index which declined 0.3% due to the losses in OANDO (-0.3%) and SEPLAT (-0.3%). The Industrial Goods index also closed 21bps lower following marginal decline in DANGOTE CEMENT (-0.6%).

Market sentiment measured by advancers/decliners ratio remained weak at 0.7x (16 advancers and 24 decliners). PZ (+8.7%), MAYBAKER (+5.0%), PORTLAND PAINT (+4.8%), OKOMU OIL (+4.7%) and STERLING BANK (+4.5%) led gains while REDSTAREX (-4.9%), MCNICHOLS (-4.7%), MANSARD (-4.1%), WAPIC (-3.7%) and UBA CAP (-2.7%) were the top decliners. Despite today’s mild pullback, we believe the weak market sentiment indicates that the market will continue to trade soft in the interim.

Source: Afrinvest (West Africa) Limited Research Team