Nigerian equities witnessed improved commitments from value investors to extend gains on moderate note despite collapsed breadth and mixed market turnover posture while speculative trading gained more attention as market traded sideways throughout the session.

Nevertheless, investors are still in cautious mode as risk appetite remained low while the low-key bargain trend was observed in few sectors.

In addition, the key benchmark indices climbed by +0.20%, taking supports mainly from Big Cap stocks in banking sub-sector and Consumer Goods sector

In the same vein, the market capitalization of 187 first-tier equities depreciated by N17.04 million as market sentiments turned positive. 88 equities were traded today as against previous 100 with more activities recorded in Financial Services, Consumer Goods, Services, and Conglomerates.

At the close of trading session, the NSE All-Share Index extends gains by +0.20% to close at 26,435.89 as against a slide by +0.01% recorded in the previous session to close at 26,382.54. In the same vein, market capitalization appreciated by N17.04million (US$106.54 million) to close at N8.44 trillion (US$52.79 billion) as against appreciation by N595.43 million (US$3.72 million) recorded in preceding session to close at N8.42 trillion (US$52.68 billion).

The number of gainers at the close of trading session closed lower at 17 as against 20 recorded in the previous session while decliners also closed higher at twenty-two (22) as against sixteen (16) losers recorded in the previous trading day – suggesting a negative market breadth.

Today, four NSE sectoral indices closed positive as NSE 30 which basically measures the performance of blue chips retraced by +0.24%, NSE Oil & Gas dipped further by -0.40% as NSE Food & Beverages pulled back by 0.20% while NSE Insurance retraced by -0.47% as NSE Banking climbed further by +1.07%. The NSE LII climbed further by +0.14%

As usual, Financial sector led the market transaction volume today with 187.38 million units valued at N1.06 billion (US$6.64 million) exchanged in 2,563 deals as against 141.59 million units valued at N1.02 billion (US$6.41 million) exchanged in 2,399 deals recorded in previous session.

The volume recorded in the sector was driven by transaction in the shares of UBA, UNITYBNK, ZENITHBANK, ACCESS and GUARANTY Plc and the total volume of 122.40 million units valued at N636.23million traded in the stocks accounted for 53.01% of the entire market volume and their value represented 29.77% of the market’s value.

Transaction volume on the exchange moved down by -3.56% to close at 230.90 million units exchanged in 4,132 deals as against decline by -5.20% recorded in the previous trading to close at 239.43 million units exchanged in 4,004 deals.

Also, market value appreciated by +13.45% to close at N2.13 billion (US13.35 million) as against depreciation by -6.38% recorded in the previous trading session to close at N1.88 billion (US11.77 million).

Sectoral Performance (According to New Market Segmentation)

Financial Services sector led the market sectoral performance with 187.38 million units of shares traded in 2,563 trades within the sector, followed by Consumer Goods sector to come second on the chart with 13.27 million units traded in 802 trades while Services sector recorded 7.95 million units in 94 trades to close with third position on the chart. See the full table below



Market Outlook by Classification
At the end of today's session, it was observed that Small Cap stocks according to new market segmentation topped today's market activity with 48.77% contribution to market turnover, followed by Medium Cap stocks with 25.36% while Large Cap stocks stake 25.87% to come last on the chart.

Among the Large cap stocks, GUARANTY, FBNH and ZENITHBANK topped the 11 traded stocks in that class while SKYEBANK, UBA and FIDELITYBK dominated Medium Cap of 22 traded stocks. Similarly, NEM, STERLNBANK and DAARCOMM led 55 traded stocks in the Small Cap category in that order. See table below



SECTORAL REVIEW
The Agriculture sector closed with one gainer as against two gainers recorded in the previous session.

The Conglomerates sector closed with one gainer as against with two gainers recorded in the previous session.

The Construction/Real Estate sector closed flat as against flat position recorded in the previous session.

The Consumer Goods sector closed with six losers to four gainers as against with four losers to five gainers recorded in previous session.

The Financial Services sector closed with seven gainers to nine losers as against with nine gainers to six losers recorded in the previous session.

The Healthcare sector closed flat compared to with one gainer to one losers recorded in previous session.  

The ICT sector closed flat compared with one gainer recorded in previous session.

The Industrial Goods sector closed with one gainer to one loser as against one loser recorded in previous session.

The Natural Resources sector closed with no price movement as against no price movement recorded in previous session.

The Oil & Gas sector closed with three gainers to one loser as against one loser recorded in previous session.

The Services sector closed with two gainers to two losers as against with three losers recorded in the previous session.

Further analysis on Acquiring Banks since transaction date showed that the share price of Access Bank Plc has recorded +81.01% gains with FCMB recording -18.21% losses while Union Bank Plc leads the chart with +251.67% gains. However, Sterling Bank Plc recorded +17.32% gains while ETI closed positive with -5.74% loss recorded. See the tracking table below.

Acquiring Banks

Stocks that made Headlines Today

Earnings Report for Banks

Top Trades

Sectoral Index

Market Outlook by Capitalisation

Top Ten Gainers of the day

Top Ten Losers of the day

Corporate Declaration

analyst@proshareng.com , 00234-1-7624131, December 5^th 2012; 17.10hrs