The Domestic bourse appreciated yesterday following renewed interest in market bellwethers, hence the All Share Index rose 2.4% to settle at 43,330.54 points while YTD return improved to 13.3%. Buying interest in DANGCEM (+5.0%), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+4.5%) and NESTLE (+3.0%) buoyed performance.
As a result, investors’ wealth increased by N370.0bn as market capitalization jumped to N15.5tn. In the same vein, activity level increased as volume and value traded inched 30.3% and 22.7% higher to 438.6m units and N10.8bn respectively. FCMB (192.9m), ACCESS (49.6m) and FBNH (48.1m) were the most traded stocks by volume while NESTLE (N2.3bn), DANGCEM(N2.0bn), GUARANTY (N1.2bn) led the most traded stocks by value.
Industrial Goods Index Leads Bullish Sector Performance
The Industrial Goods index led the gainers chart, up 4.1% primarily on the back of a rally in DANGCEM (+5.0%) and WAPCO (+3.8%). The Consumer Goods index trailed, rising 2.4% as NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+4.5%) and NESTLE (+3.0%) recorded gains.
The Banking and Oil & Gas indices also trended northwards, up 0.8% and 0.2% respectively, due to price appreciation in ZENITH (+1.8%), UBA (+1.6%), SEPLAT (+0.4%) and FORTE (+0.2%). In related news, SEPLAT released its FY: 2017 result today which was largely impressive.
Gross revenue spiked 118.2% to N138.3bn, which was unsurprising given the relative peace in the Niger Delta region in 2017 which translated to higher production volumes for the Company.
Accordingly, the company recorded N81.1bn in Profit After Tax (PAT) from a loss of N45.4bn in FY: 2016. Lastly, bargain hunting in NEM (+5.0%) and CONTINSURE (+1.9%) uplifted the Insurance index (+0.1%).
Market Breadth Turns Positive
Market breadth (advance/decline ratio) which measures investor sentiment strengthened today, improving to 1.4x from 0.5x recorded the previous day as 31 stocks advanced while 23 stocks declined.
The best performing stocks today were CCNN (+8.5%), JAPAUL OIL (+8.0%) and NEM (+5.0%) while COURTVILLE (-6.9%), AFRINSURE (-5.0%) and REDSTAREX (-4.8%) declined the most. Current trading pattern is reflective of the fact that investors are increasingly taking position in fundamentally sound dividend paying stocks as earnings begin to trickle in, hence we expect market performance to remain largely positive in the short term.
In the NASD OTC Exchange, total volume and value traded stood at 45.5m units and N35.1m respectively. SDCSCSPLC (+0.9%) was the only instrument that gained yesterday.
