Nigerian stocks rally by 27bps

The local bourse reversed its negative performance from the previous session as the All Share Index (ASI) rose 27bps to close at 37,990.74 points while YTD gain advanced to 41.4%. Resultantly, investors gained N36.0bn as market capitalization expanded to N13.5tn. Today’s positive performance can be largely attributed to buying interest observed across sectors, although WAPCO (+4.7%), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+0.9%) and NESTLE (+0.7%) were the major drivers. However, activity level was mixed as volume traded declined 22.7% to 322.3m units while value traded rose 71.5% to N3.6bn.

Performance across sectors was bullish as all indices under our coverage trended northwards. The Industrial Index led the gainers chart, rising 1.5% consequent on price appreciation in WAPCO (+4.7%). The Oil & Gas index trailed, up 1.1% on the back of upticks in TOTAL (+5.0%) and MOBIL (+4.9%). Similarly, the Consumer Goods index gained 0.5% on renewed buying interest in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+0.9%) and NASCON (+2.9%) while GUARANTY (+3.7%) and STERLING (+2.9%) pulled the Banking index 0.1% higher. The Insurance index closed today’s trading session

Investor Sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) significantly strengthened from 0.6x recorded the previous day to 3.1x – 25 stocks advanced while 8 declined. The top performers today were CUTIX (+5.0%), MOBIL (+5.0%) and TOTAL (+4.8%) while LINKASSURE (-4.3%), HONEYFLOUR (-3.2%) and LIVESTOCK (-2.3%) led laggards. Following today’s positive performance and the significant improvement in investor sentiment, we re-iterate our positive short-term outlook for the equity market as we proceed to the final trading session of the year.