September 29, 2017/InvestmentOne Research

The equities market inched up just +0.03% today, however the market is down -0.14% WTD.

Market breadth index ended neutral as 18 stocks gained and 18 stocks declined.

CILEASING (+7.24%) was the best performer compared with AGLEVENT (-4.84%) the worst performer.

UBA (+2.13%) was the most actively traded stock with c.40m units of shares, however, investors exchanged N1.4bn worth of  GUARANTY shares.

Sector Performance  

·         NSE Banking Index: Closed up +0.40% on the back of the gains in ACCESS (+1.26%), FBNH (+3.11%), UBA (+2.13%) and ZENITHBANK (+0.43%), which cancelled out the sell-off in STANBIC (-1.25%).

·         NSE Consumer Goods Index: Following the declines in NB (-0.60%), GUINNESS (-3.68%) and NESTLE (-0.40%) the sector fell by -0.48%.

·         NSE Industrial Index: Gained +0.31% with support from WAPCO (+0.96%)

·         NSE Oil & Gas Index: MOBIL (+1.20%) and OANDO (+0.51%) drove the index up +0.21%

Earnings Release

NIL

Market Insight

The equities market gained +7.01% QTD largely due to the gains in July 2017 (+8.23%) as the market ended slightly down in August and September. With this said, while the ASI has traded sideways in the past few weeks, we believe the direction going forward may be influenced by investors positioning ahead of Q3 2017 earnings season. Nonetheless, we are of the view that the recent sell-off represents an entry opportunity in our recommended quality names.

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