Buying interest in Dangote, Julius Berger, Access, UBA lifts market as index rise 1.9%

Nigeria’s equities market continued its bullish run Monday, closing positive with the benchmark index appreciating by 1.86 percent to 34,652.52 basis points on the back of gains in DANGCEM (+5.0%) and value banking stocks – ACCESS (+4.5%), UBA (+3.6%), STANBIC (+3.1%) and ZENITH (+1.3%).

Accordingly, year-to-date (YTD) return climbed to 28.9 percent. Stock prices added N217.8 billion as market capitalization settled at N11.9 trillion. However, market activity waned as volume and value traded dipped 22.3 percent and 22.8 percent to close at 293.8 million units and N3.9 billion respectively.

Performance was mixed across the sectors as three of five indices trended upward. The industrial goods index topped Gainer’s chart, appreciating 2.5% due to sustained buying interest in DANGCEM (+5.0%) and JBERGER (+5.0%).

The banking index trailed, up 1.1 percent on account of gains in ACCESS (+4.5%) and UBA (+3.6%), while the oil & gas index added 0.1 percent buoyed by appreciation in OANDO (+1.5%).

Conversely, the consumer goods index fell 0.5 percent due to sell-offs in NESTLE (-1.7%) and PZ (-2.7%). Similarly, the Insurance index sustained its negative performance from last week, down 0.4 percent owing to losses in MANSARD (-1.5%) and AIICO (-5.0%).

Investor sentiment stayed flat today as market breadth (advancers/decliners’ ratio) remained at 1.0x (Friday’s close of 1.0x). 20 stocks advanced while 20 declined. The top gainers were TRANSCORP (+8.1%), DANGCEM (+5.0%) and JBERGER (+5.0%) while AIICO (-5.0%), VITAFOAM (-4.9%) and MORISON (-4.8%) led the decliners’ chart.