October 12, 2016/InvestmentOne Research
- Following two consecutive sessions of gains, the equities market declined today, falling -0.03% to 28,027.23pts. The negative close was largely driven by the declines in NESTLE (-45pts), WAPCO (-19pts) and DANGSUGAR (-7pts). These performances offset the gains in GUINNESS (+17pts) and Banking names; UBA (+14pts) and GUARANTY (+13pts).
- Major sector performance was mixed today with Oil & Gas (+1.49%) and Banking (+0.68%) closing positive while the Industrial and Consumer sectors shed -0.94% and -0.57% respectively.
- However, market breadth index, a measure of investor sentiment, remained negative at -0.08x. CAVERTON (+8.57%) led the 13 stocks that gained, while UAC-PROP (-9.37%) was the market’s worst performer out of the 20 stocks that declined.
- Market activity declined across board today as investors exchanged 156m units of shares in 3,277 deals worth N1.43bn. this represented a -34% and -47% drop in total volume and total value respectively. GUARANTY (+0.63%) led the market in terms of volume and value with 28m units of shares worth N673m.
- Going forward, we expect the direction of the index to be influenced by Q3 corporate scorecards. This said, our outlook for equities’ performance remains dim in the near term given the weak economic environment. However, we advise that investors lengthen their horizon and gradually build positions in quality names.
