Tigerbrands, OANDO lead the way, as market advances 0.65% WoW

Last week turned out to be a generally good one for the market, as the NSEASI returned positive on four (4) of five (5) trading days. Consequently, the NSEASI advanced by 0.65 percent week on week (WoW) to peg the year-to-date (YtD) return at -9.27 percent.

The volume and value of transactions both declined by 24.77 percent and 6.87 percent on the back of tempered participation, with only a few earnings reports released during the week.

There were forty (40) gainers and twenty-one (21) decliners to peg the market breadth at 1.90x. Tigerbrands once again featured on the top gainers list, advancing by 59.30 percent WoW to close at NGN2.74. Also, OANDO rallied significantly during the week, advancing by 53.30 percent. The counters were followed by Honeywell Flour Mills (+25.00 percent), Fidson Drugs Plc (+19.57 percent), and Flourmill Plc (18.03 percent) on the gainers list.

Conversely, Beta Glass Plc (-9.00 percent), AG Leventis Plc (-5.00 percent), Union Dicon (-4.98 percent), Nigeria German (-4.89 percent) and Ikeja Hotels Plc (-4.76 percent) were the top underperformers in the week.

There were a few earnings releases during the week, the most notable of which was from Wapic Insurance Plc. WAPIC recorded a good performance, as Gross Premium Written grew by 36.45 percent YoY to NGN7.10bn, while Profit-After-Tax (PAT) advanced by 447.81 percent to NGN1.30bn.

The Company also proposed a dividend of NGN0.03 per share, with closure and payment dates of 3rd and 12th March, 2016 correspondingly.

Also, Computer Warehouse Group released a profit warning; it’s second since being listed on the mainboard of the NSE, in which the company detailed the circumstances which led to its depressed performance in the period.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released GDP figures for Q4:2014 which revealed that the Nigerian economy shrank quarter on quarter (QoQ) and year-on-year (YoY) by 0.73 percent and 3.83 percent accordingly, to 2.11 percent.

The aggregate real GDP was recorded at NGN69.02tn (vs. NGN67.15tn in 2014), while aggregate real GDP grew by 2.79 percent YoY (vs. 6.23 percent in 2014).  The Agric. (23.11 percent), Trade (16.95 percent), Services (12.04 percent) and ICT (11.37 percent) were the major drivers of the recorded growth, accounting for c.64 percent of the total real GDP in 2015.

Given the fact that most of the factors which resulted in the contraction witnessed in 2015 are still prevalent, analysts anticipate that GDP growth for Q1:2016 may remain depressed.

They anticipate that activities will be driven in this week by earnings releases and dividend declarations, especially given that it is expected that some banks may release results this week.

Given, this, and provided that releases are generally positive, it is expected that market may again finish in the green zone this week.