Nigeria capital market index records highest weekly gain in 20 months

Against the backdrop of rising oil prices and strong portfolio flows, the uptrend in market performance from the prior week was sustained this week as the Nigeria All Share Index (ASI) closed in the green on all trading sessions save for Friday.

Thus, the ASI gained 10.2 percent week-on-week (W-o-W) to settle at 42,898.90 points while year-to-date (YTD) return expanded to 12.2 percent.

In the review period, market capitalization gained a total of N1.5 trillion in value to settle at N15.4 trillion. In the same vein, activity level strengthened as average volume and value traded rose 66.2 percent and 193.3 percent W-o-W to 1.0 billion units and N13.8 billion respectively.

The top traded stocks by volume were TRANSCORP (648.6m), DIAMOND (588.7m) and ACCESS (273.5m) while NIGERIAN BREWERIES (N17.6bn), ZENITH (N8.3bn) and DANGCEM (N4.9bn) were the top traded stocks by value.

The week started off on a positive note, with the ASI advancing 2.4 percent, buoyed by a broad-based rally across sectors though market bellwethers- DANGCEM (+5.0%), GUARANTY (+2.3%) and ZENITH (+2.5%) drove performance.

The positive momentum was sustained till Thursday as market capitalization reached an all time high of N15.3tn while the ASI rose to a 10-year high of 43,041 points. The bullish run was halted on Friday as profit taking by investors dragged the ASI 0.3 percent southwards.

In line with the bullish performance, sector performance was broadly positive as all indices advanced W-o-W. The industrial goods index led the gainers chart, up 13.0 percent W-o-W consequent on price appreciation in WAPCO (+13.8%) and DANGCEM (+12.9).

The banking and oil & gas indices followed, adding 12.9 percent and 7.5 percent W-o-W as GUARANTY (+14.0%), ZENITH (+12.0%), CONOIL (+34.0), and SEPLAT (+3.8%) recorded sustained buying interest.

Similarly, the Insurance and Consumer Goods indices closed 6.5% and 5.6% northwards on the back of a rally in LINKASSURE (+15.4), MANSARD (+14.2%), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+9.4%) and GUINNESS (+14.0%).

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) significantly improved to 9.0x from 5.4x recorded the previous Friday as 63 stocks advanced against seven decliners.

The top performers this week were HONYFLOUR (+39.7%), SKYE (+37.7%), and CHAMPION (+36.6%) while MEYER (-12.9%), GLAXOSMITH (-2.7%) and DANGSUGAR (-2.7%) were the worst performers. As the benchmark index halted a six-day bullish streak today, we envisage some profit taking in early trades next week. Nevertheless, we maintain our near term positive outlook on market performance.

In the NASD OTC Securities Exchange, total volume traded today was 29,329 units, while total value traded was N3.1m. The SDNDEP was the top traded security by volume and value.