Domestic Equities Market: Bulls reign opens June on capital appreciations in small-cap stocks

By Charles Abuede

• Market analysts expect profit-taking, mixed bargain hunting to drive activities this week

Investor sentiment is now threading on a positive path as the local equities market rebounded last week with trading closing in the green following consecutive positive sessions and some capital appreciation, especially among the small-cap stocks. As a result, the All-Share index rose 1.2 percent week on week to 38,726.10 points, while the market capitalisation increased to N20.19 trillion and the market year to date return improved to -3.8 per cent.

Although market investors made a profit of N244.5 billion last week, analysts expect trading sessions to be a mix of bargain hunting and profit-taking activities this week without ruling out the possibility of some profit-taking.

In a similar vein, the level of market activity improved slightly as the average volume and value traded increased 3.9 percent and 0.5 percent to 215.5 million units and N1.9 billion respectively. The most traded stocks by volume were Zenith Bank (74.2m units), Sovereign Trust Insurance (56.7m units) and Fidelity Bank (52.8m units); while Zenith Bank (N1.7bn), Seplat Petroleum (N909.5m) and GTBank (N507.8m) led by value.

Total performance across the sectoral fronts was bullish as 4 indices closed in the green with the industrial goods and ICT indices leading the gains with 2.6 percent and 1.3 percent week on week, respectively, reflecting price increases in Dangote Cement (+3.5%) and MTN Nigeria (+2.5%).

Similarly, the insurance and banking indices advanced, up 1.2 per cent and 4 basis points week on week respectively as Wapic Plc (+9.3%), Cornerstone Insurance (+3.7%) and GTBank (+2.3%) gained. On the other hand, the consumer goods and oil & gas indices declined by 0.4 per cent and 0.8 per cent from the last week’s performance, respectively; due to price declines in Champion Breweries (-9.9%), Nason (-8.8%) and Seplat Petroleum (-1.2%).

Meanwhile, the level of investor sentiment strengthened to 1.9x from 1.0x last week as 32 stocks gained against the 17 that declined. University Press Limited (+43.6%), Morison Industry (+20.2%) and Vita Foam (+10.9%) led the top gainers while CWG Plc (-26.1%), Royal Exchange  (-11.1%) and CAP Plc (-10.1%) led the decliners.

The NSE 30 Index increased by 1 per cent to close at 1,573.18 points from 1,552.29 points as on the previous week’s close. Market turnover closed with a traded volume of 75.65 million units.