Positive sentiments continued in the local bourse as major indicators showed bullish feeling as the market continued to witness bargain hunting for value stocks from investors who exited trading on Wednesday with N25 billion gains. Analysts at Afrinvest Research have, however, maintained that the bullish performance will be extended on the back of bargain hunting activities in the market.
Strong demand in the stocks of market bellwethers such as MTN Nigeria (+1.5%), Guaranty Trust Holding Company (+0.7%), and First Bank Holding (+1.3%) buoyed a sterling 0.12 percent performance of the listed equities as the NGX all-share index inched further to close at 38,968.34 points, while market year to date loss improved to 3.2 percent while the market capitalisation advanced to N20.30 trillion from N20.27 trillion as recorded on the previous day.
Consequently, the level of market trading activity was mixed as total traded volume declined 38.1 percent to 141.4 million units while total value traded on Wednesday rose 58.3 percent to N2.97 billion from 3,079 deals.
Meanwhile, the top three most traded stocks by volume on Wednesday were Universal Insurance (17.9m units), Zenith Bank (9.7m units), and United Capital (9.3m units), while the likes of MTN Nigeria (N1.0bn), Nestle Nigeria (N703.5m), and Seplat Energy (N471.9m) led the top three most traded securities by value.
Across the sectors, it was mixed on Wednesday as the consumer and industrial goods indices closed flat while the oil & gas index led the losers category, down 2.0 percent due to price depreciation in Seplat Energy (-6.5%). By the same token, the insurance and banking indices plunged 1.2 percent and 0.4 percent respectively on the back of sell-offs in Aiico Insurance (-2.0%), Regency Alliance Insurance (-6.7%), and Fidelity (-1.2%). Temporarily, the ICT index was the only gainer, up-ticking 0.8 percent due to bargain hunting in MTN Nigeria (+1.5%).
A brief snapshot of the warm outing on Wednesday showed the level of investor sentiment as measured by the market breadth, strengthened to 0.7x from 0.6x, as 13 stocks gained while 18 stocks stayed in the losers’ territory. Northern Nigeria Flour Mills (+9.6%), Oando Plc (+6.2%), and Learn Africa (+5.9%) were the top gainers, while Transnational Corporation Hotel (-10.0%), Consolidated Hallmark Insurance Plc (-9.4%), and Prestige Assurance (-8.3%) ended the day in the losers’ category.
Meanwhile, the NGX 30 Index increased by 0.19 percent to close at 1,618.85 points as against 1,615.83 points as on the previous day. Market turnover closed with traded volume of 56.47 million units. MTN Nigeria and First Bank Holding were the key gainers, while Seplat Energy and Sterling Bank were the key losers.
