February 22, 2017/InvestmentOne Research
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- The equities market closed marginally down today (-0.01%) as the sell-off in NESTLE (-55pts), GUARANTY (-33pts), UNILEVER (-18pts), WAPCO (-13pts) and FBNH (-10pts) slightly offset the gains in NB (+115pts) and GUINNESS (+12pts). As a result, the NSE ASI closed at 25,249.74pts representing a market capitalisation of N8.74tr.
- Major sector performance was mixed at close today as the Banking (-0.37%) and Industrial (-0.95%) sectors declined while the Consumer Goods (+0.88%) and Oil & Gas (+0.12%) sector gained.
- However, market breadth index closed negative (-0.14x) for the third consecutive trading session as just 8 stocks gained against 19 stocks that declined. GUINNESS (+4.59%) was the market’s best performer while UNILEVER (-4.98%) led the losers’ chart.
- Investors exchanged 118m units of shares in 2,579 deals worth N1.80bn today, representing a -10% and -35% decline in total volume and total value respectively, against yesterday. ZENITHBANK (+0.68%) was the most actively traded stock with 42m units of shares accounting for 35.5% of total volume.
- While we may see support to the NSE-ASI performance from earnings releases, we expect the market to remain volatile given the lack of positive news flow to support the momentum. This said, we however advise investors to lengthen their horizon and gradually build position in quality names for a medium to long term horizon.
