Market Statistics: Thursday, 16th November 2017

Market Rebounds after a 2-Day Selloff… NSE ASI up 5bps
The equities market clawed back gains after a 2-day selloff as the All Share Index (ASI) rose by a marginal 5bps to close at 36,634.89 points while YTD return improved to 36.3%. As a result, market capitalization increased by N77.1bn to settle at N12.8tn.

Today’s market performance was bolstered by price appreciations in GUARANTY (+1.4%), INTBREW (+3.6%) and PZ (+5.0%). Likewise, activity level improved as volume traded advanced 18.2% to 217.8m units while value traded surged 252.1% to N11.7bn.

The surge in activity level is largely due to NIGERIAN BREWERIES which accounted for 31.4% and 81.1% of total volume and value traded respectively.

Insurance Index Leads Losers
Performance across sectors was mixed as 3 of 5 indices closed in the red. The insurance Index was the biggest loser, down 0.8% as LINKASSURE (-3.4%) and AIICO (-1.8%) recorded losses. Similarly, the Oil & Gas index fell 0.2% – largely on the back of price depreciation in SEPLAT (-1.0%).

Also, the Consumer Goods index shed 0.1% due to selling pressure in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-0.6%) and DANGSUGAR (-2.1%). However, the Industrial Goods index closed the day flat.

Investor Sentiment Strengthens
Investor sentiment strengthened, albeit still negative, as market breadth (Advance/Decline ratio) rose from 0.6x the previous session to 0.7x today as 17 stocks advanced against 25 which declined. Top performers were BOCGAS (+9.9%), PZ (+5.0) and AGLEVENT (+4.7%) while CAVERTON (-9.0%), ETERNA (-5.8%) and UPL (-5.0%) led laggards.

The marginal rebound recorded today was in line with our expectation after the large selloffs in prior trading sessions. We expect the market to further claw back gains in tomorrow’s session on bargain hunting.