Stock Market All Share Index Up 6bps, as Consumer Goods Index Sustained Lead

The equity market recuperated from predominantly bearish trading as late bargain hunting in some large caps stocks bolster the benchmark index, to close in the positive territory for the seventh consecutive trading session. 
The benchmark index rose by a marginal 6.0 basis points (bps) to close at 34,684.32 points with YTD performance at negative 16.1 per cent. The marginal gains today was against the backdrop of sustained rally in bellwether Consumer Goods stocks — Nigerian Breweries (5.0 per cent), Nestle (4.8 per cent), Guinness (6.6 per cent) and Unilever (5.0 per cent). Market activity was mixed as investors traded predominantly in large caps, resulting in increase in value traded (49.5 per cent) to N7.0bn while volume traded dropped 37.0 per cent to 390.8 million.
Investor appetite for Consumer Goods counters was sustained today as index rose 4.0 per cent to record the highest gain for the second day. The Insurance Index followed with 0.9 per cent gain. On the other hand, the Oil & Gas index declined 2.9% to lead losses and halt five days of consecutive gain — as investors took profits in OANDO (9.7 per cent) and Total (4.5 per cent). Similarly, the Banking and Industrial Goods Indices declined 2.1 per cent and 1.4 per cent – attributable to profit taking in Zenith (4.3 per cent), UBA (8.9 per cent) and Dangote Cement (0.7 per cent).
Market breadth turned negative at 0.8x (23 advancers versus 29 decliners) after seven days of positive close, — an indication of likely bearish trading in the session ahead. At the close of trading, Vono (9.2 per cent) RTbriscoe (8.7 per cent) Champion (7.9 per cent) Guinness (6.6 per cent) Caverton (5.8 per cent) topped the gainers’ chart while OANDO (9.7 per cent) UBA (8.9 per cent) FCMB (5.0 per cent) PZ (5.0 per cent) and COSTAIN (4.9 per cent) led losses. Deteriorating market breadth and slowing gains in the benchmark index indicates imminent bearish run in the trading sessions ahead. Whilst early birds may already be positioning ahead of full year of 2014 results, we expect profit taking to take precedence at tomorrow’s trading session with macroeconomic fundamentals still weak as oil prices sank to a 5-year low yesterday (Brent Crude – $57.88).

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