Market Statistics: Thursday, 9th November 2017

DANCEM Drags Benchmark Index … NSE ASI down 24bps
The Nigerian Bourse bucked a 2-day consecutive gain as the All Share Index fell 24bps to close at 37,051.54 points whilst YTD return moderated to 37.9%. Similarly, market capitalisation lost N30.3bn to close at N12.8tn.

Today’s negative performance was consequent on profit taking in DANGCEM (-0.9%), ex-DANGCEM market would have closed 4bps northward. However, activity level was mixed as volume fell 9.2% to close at 175.8m units while value traded rose 94.9% to settle at N3.5bn

Mixed Sector Performance
Sector performance today stayed mixed as 3 of 5 indices under our coverage closed in the green, while 2 trended southwards. The Banking index (-0.3%) led losers against the backdrop of losses in ZENITH (-1.9%) and UBA (-1.0%) while a decline in DANGCEM (-0.9%) pulled the Industrial Goods index 0.5% lower.

On the contrary, the Oil & Gas index appreciated the most, up 1.2% on account of gains in MOBIL (+7.8%) and FORTE(+5.0%). The Insurance index trailed, gaining 0.3% due to price appreciation in CONTISURE (+4.4%). Similarly, an uptick in INTBREW (+8.4%) pushed the Consumer Goods index to close 0.1% higher.

Investor sentiment Remains Unchanged
Investor sentiment stayed flat today as market breadth (advancers/decliners ratio) closed at 0.9x relative to 0.9x recorded in the previous session. Leading the gainers’ chart were CAVERTON (+9.5%), INTBREW (+8.4%) and MOBIL (+7.8%) while LAWUNION (-4.6%), NPFMCRFBK (-4.6%) and FIDELITY (-4.1%) were today’s worst performers.

While we attribute today’s performance to profit taking in DANGCEM, the relatively unchanged market breadth suggests investors are still sourcing for bargains. Accordingly, we expect a positive close for the week.