After three consecutive days of declines, Nigerian equities finally bucked the prevailing bearish sentiment Thursday as market index recorded a 0.6 percent uptick to settle at 36,316.58 points. Consequently, year-to-date gain rose to 35.1 percent.
Analysts at Afrinvest see Thursday’s upturn in market trend as largely driven by bargain hunting in market bellwethers following three consecutive days of decline.
To this end they expect the market to trade in similar trend Friday.
Thursday’s market performance largely pinned on the late rally in Dangote Cement (DANGCEM), which appreciated 2.7 percent. A detail appraisal of the market thus revealed that without appreciation in DANGCEM, the market would have lost 0.3 percent.
Aside DANGCEM, upward price movements in ZENITH (+2.3%), FLOURMILLS (+4.9%) and DANSUGAR (+1.6%) also boosted market performance. Accordingly, market capitalization rose to N12.5 trillion as stocks value added N73.8 billion.
Activity level improved as volume and value traded advanced 0.2 percent and 7.6 percent to 225.1 million units and N5.5 billion respectively.
Sector performance was mixed as three of five indices closed positive.
The industrial goods index led gainers, adding 0.9 percent mainly to price appreciation in DANGCEM (+2.7%). Likewise, the insurance and banking indices climbed 0.3 percent and 0.1 percent owing to upticks in CONTINSURE (+4.8%) and ZENITH (+2.3%) respectively.
On the flip side, the oil & gas index maintained its losing streak, shedding 1.2 percent as a result of losses in OANDO (-3.8%) and MOBIL (-5.0%). Equally selloff in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-0.5%), NESTLE (-0.8%) and GUINNESS (-3.4%) contributed to drag the consumer goods index 0.4 percent lower.
Investor sentiment improved as market breadth increased to 0.6x (from 0.3x Wednesday) with 15 stocks advancing against 27 declining stocks. The best performing stocks today were FIDSON (+5.0%), MAYBAKER (+5.0%) and FLOURMILL (+4.9%) while ETERNA (-6.0%), MOBIL (-5.0%) and NAHCO (-4.9%) declined the most.
