Equities extend gains, as NSE All Shares Index up 39bps

Equities Extend Gains … NSE ASI up 39bps
At the close of trading today, the All Share Index gained 0.4% to close at 28,034.32 points while YTD loss trimmed to 2.1%. Consequently, investors gained N37.6bn as market capitalization increased to N9.6tn. Also, market activity advanced as volume and value traded improved 36.6% and 57.2% to settle at 234.2m units and N2.7bn respectively. Total deals transacted increased to 3,335 from the previous 3,045 deals recorded on Monday.

Oil & Gas Sector Leads Sector Gainers
Sector performance remained mixed as 3 sector indices advanced while 2 declined. The Oil & Gas index (+1.2%) led the list of gainers as SEPLAT rallied 5.0%. The Banking Index (+1.0%) followed closely on account of gains in ZENITH (+3.4%), ACCESS (+2.2%) and UBA (+2.0%) while the Consumer Goods index (+0.6%) closed higher due to improved buying interest in NESTLE (+3.1%) and DANGSUGAR (+2.4%). UBA submitted its unaudited 9M: 2016 earnings, reporting 8.2% Y-o-Y and 7.6% Y-o-Y growth in gross earnings and PAT respectively. On the flipside, the Industrial Goods (-0.7%) and Insurance (-0.3%) indices lost on account of renewed sell pressures on WAPCO (-1.9%) and AIICO (-4.6%).

Market Breadth Negative
Investor sentiment remained weak as reflected in the market breadth which declined to 0.6x (from the previous 0.7x recorded on Monday) consequent on 13 stocks that appreciated against 21 decliners. The best performing stocks were SEPLAT (+5.0%), VITAFOAM (+4.9%) and LIVESTOCK (+4.9%) while FIDSON (-4.8%), GUINNESS (-4.8%) and NEIMETH (-4.7%) declined the most. Despite the sustained positive trend in market performance, we expect sentiment to remain soft in the interim, as investors continue to trade short-term in expectation of more earnings releases.