The Nigerian equity market started the week in the green territory, sustaining the gain recorded in the last trading days of the prior week. Notably, the NSE-ASI was up 0.7% to close at 26,609.3 points while YTD return improved to -15.3% (previously – 16.0%) as. Also, market capitalization gained N93.1bn and closed at N12.8tn. Activity level also improved as volume and value traded advanced 72.0% and 136.4% to 382.8m units and N7.2bn respectively.
Sectoral performance was bullish as four out of the five sectors under coverage closed the day in the green region. The Oil & Gas (+5.1%) sector recorded the most gains amid price appreciation in SEPLAT (+8.8%) and ETERNA (+10.0%). The Consumer Goods (+2.1%) sector index followed suite owing to gains in bellwether NESTLE (+2.8%) and NB (+3.1%). The Insurance (+1.0%) sector was not left behind as NEM (+10.0%) and CUSTODIAN (+6.2%) erased deep loss in WAPIC (-5.5%). The Industrial Goods (+0.4%) was part of the green party as DANGCEM was up 1.1%. However, the Banking (-0.7%) index was the day’s sole loser on the back of price declines in ACCESS (-2.01%) and UBN (-9.56%).
Investors sentiment remained encouraging as the 23 stocks gained against 12 decliners leaving the market breadth at 1.9x. Looking ahead, we expect the market to close 2019 on a bullish note amid year-end portfolio rebalancing. However, this may be erased on Thursday and Friday as the market opens for the year.
United Capital Plc Research
