Nigerian stocks Monday traded higher as buy interest in bellwethers – GUARANTY (+2.1%), DANGCEM (+0.6%), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+0.5%) and FBNH (+1.1%) helped pushed benchmark index, the NSEASI, by 0.3 percent to 36,711.96 points.
Consequently, year-to-date (YTD) loss at the bourse declined to -4.0 percent and market capitalization gained N39.3 billion to close at N13.3 trillion.
However, activity level weakened as volume and value traded declined 66.8 percent and 43.4 percent to 225.9 million units and N2.2 billion respectively. Top traded stocks by volume were MEDVIEWAIR (100.0m units), TRANSCORP (16.1m units) and ZENITH (11.3m units) while those by value were DANGCEM (N564.1bn), GUARANTY (N315.5bn) and ZENITH (N260.3bn).
Performance across sectors was largely bullish as 4 of 5 major indices closed northwards. The banking index gained the most, up 0.6 percent due to price appreciation in GUARANTY (+2.1%), ZENITH (+0.2%) and WEMA (+5.8%) while the industrial goods index followed closely, rising 0.4 percent, on the back of gains in DANGCEM (+0.6%) and CCNN (+4.4%).
Similarly, the insurance and consumer goods indices rose 0.3 percent and 0.1 percent respectively, buoyed by investors’ interest in CONTINSURE (+6.0%), NASCON (+2.7%) and FLOURMILLS (+1.0%).
On the flipside, the oil & gas index lost 1.7 percent, as investors sold positions in OANDO (-7.2%) and FORTE (-9.7%).
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) improved to 1.1x from 0.8x recorded in the prior session as 20 stocks advanced against 18 stocks that declined.
Top gainers on the day were CUTIX (+10.0%), CONTINSURE (+6.0%) and WEMA (+5.8%) while top losers were ABBEYBDS (-10.0%), UPL (-9.8%) and FORTE (-9.7%).
“Today, we saw investors take advantage of attractive entry opportunities in some mid to large cap stocks that were trading close to the oversold region, based on the Relative Strength Index (RSI). In subsequent sessions, we expect bargain hunting to keep performance upbeat,” analysts at Afrinvest Research noted on their outlook for the market.
