Banking stocks rally, as stock market rises by 0.5%

Nigeria’s stock market rose by 0.5 percent Wednesday as All Share Index settled at 30,878.56 points following gains in banking stocks such as Guaranty Trust Bank (+2.8%), Zenith (+0.9%) and Fidelity (+9.6%).

The market’s year-to-date losses thus improved to -1.8 percent while market capitalization increased by N52.8 billion to settle at N11.5 trillion.

Activity level also strengthened as volume and value traded advanced 53.5 percent and 21.5 percent to 376.3 million units and N2.9 billion respectively.

The top traded stocks by volume were Access Bank (155.8m units), UBA (62.1m units) and FCMB (32.6m units); while the top traded stocks by value were Access (N875.2m), Zenith (N678.8m) and UBA (N450.8m).

Despite the positive performance of the broader market, 4 of 5 major sector indices closed in the red.

The banking index was the lone gainer advancing 1.6 percent following gains in Guaranty Trust Bank (+2.8%), Zenith (+0.9%) and Fidelity (+9.6%).

On the flip side, the insurance index shed 0.2 percent dragged by NEM (-4.4%) and Sovereign Insurance (-4.6%); while the oil & gas index declined by 0.1% due to profit taking activities in Forte Oil (-1.7%).

 Similarly, the industrial goods (-4bps) and consumer Goods (-1bp) indices closed flattish, albeit negative, as price depreciation in Wapco (-0.4%), Dangote Flour (-1.6%) and Honeywell Flourmill (-1.6%) weighed on the indices.

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) stood at 2.1x – a slight decline from Tuesday’s 2.6x – as 21 stocks advanced against 10 stocks that declined.

The outperforming stocks for the day were First Aluminum (+9.7%), Fidelity Bank (+9.6%) and Union DAC (+7.7%) while the least performing stocks for the day were Resort Savings and Loans (-8.3%), Sovereign Insurance (-4.6%) and UAC Nigeria (-4.5%).