August 31, 2017/InvestmentOne Research

On the last trading session of the month, the equities market closed down -0.35%. WTD and MTD the ASI fell by -3.12% and -0.95% respectively.

Despite the negative close, market breadth index ended positive as 27 stocks gained compared with 20 stocks that declined.

JBERGER (-5.00%) was the market’s worst performer against CONTINSURE (+5.00%), which topped the gainers’ chart.

SOVRENINS was the most actively traded stock with 100m units of shares exchanged while DANGCEM (+0.23%) led the market in regards to value with N1.49bn worth of shares traded.

Sector Performance

·         NSE Banking Index: Sell off in Tier 1 banking names; UBA (-3.70%) and GUARANTY (-0.28%), as well as FCMB (-2.73%) offset the gains in ACCESS (+0.62%) as the sector declined by -0.25%

·         NSE Consumer Goods Index: Worst performer (-1.03%) largely due to NB (-2.69%)

·         NSE Industrial Index: Closed up +0.10% on the back of DANGCEM (+0.23%)

·         NSE Oil & Gas Index: Gains in SEPLAT (+1.76%), TOTAL (+0.82%) and OANDO (+0.15%) led the index up (+0.95%)

Earnings Release

NIL

Market Insight

Activity levels continued to improve today despite the shorter than normal trading session as investors exchanged N4.04bn worth of shares. However, the market closed negative for the fourth consecutive trading session. In the near term, we expect the market to be volatile as Q2 2017 earnings season comes to an end. Nonetheless, we see the recent sell-off as an entry opportunity in our recommended quality names.

TOP PICKS: ACCESS, DANGCEM, GUARANTY, NB, NESTLE, UBA & ZENITH BANK