Nigeria’s equities market performance ended Tuesday slightly positive to recoup some of the losses from the previous trading session due to modest gains in Dangote Cement (+0.7%), Dangote Sugar (+3.3%) and UBA (+2.0%).
As a result, the All Share Index (ASI) advanced 0.3 percent to settle at 32,718 points. Market capitalisation likewise grew by N43.9bn to N11.2tn as year-to-date loss reduced to -19.7 percent.
Activity level strengthened as value and volume traded advanced by 104. percent and 30.9 percent to N3.4bn and 215.4m units respectively. The most active stocks for the day by value were Zenith (N1.3bn), Nestle (N640.1m) and Dangote Cement (N287.3m) while Zenith (58.3m units), Sterling (35.1m units) and FBN Holdings (25.6m units) were the top traded stocks by volume.
Performance across sectors showed the industrial goods index advanced the most by 0.7 percent, a rebound from Monday’s negative performance – on the back of gains in Dangote Cement (+0.7%) and Lafarge WAPCO (+1.6%). Also, the consumer goods index trailed, advancing by 0.6 percent, bolstered by price appreciation in Dangote Sugar (+3.3%), Nigerian Breweries (+0.6%) and Flourmill (+5.0%) while the oil & gas index improved marginally by 0.1 percent following gains in ForteOil (+4.4%). However, the banking and insurance indices extended their losing streak by -0.1 percent and -0.4 percent respectively as losses in Guaranty Trust Bank (-1.0%), Diamond Bank (-7.8%), NEM Insurance (-4.3%) and Prestige (-8.5%) weighed on the indices.
Investors sentiment moved in tandem with today’s market performance as market breadth (advance/decline ratio) more than doubled, improving to 1.4x from 0.6x recorded Monday with 22 stocks advancing against 16 that declined. Law Union and Rocks (+8.5%), UACN (+6.5%), Wema (+5.6%) were the best performing stocks for the day while CI leasing (-9.8%), Prestige (-8.5%) and Diamond Bank (-7.8%) led the laggards.
“In subsequent trading sessions, we expect a furtherance of today’s positive performance, however, we envisage that this will be short-lived as we maintain our overall bearish outlook for the market,” analysts at Afrinvest noted at the end of trading on Tuesday.
