The equities market sustained gains recorded from Tuesday’s session as investors embarked on strong rally in Dangote Cement stocks which rose 2.7 percent Wednesday.
This propelled the All Share Index by 0.5 percent and settle at 31,151.68 points. Year-to-date loss also moderated to -18.5%.
Investors wealth thus improved as market capitalisation rose by N52.7 billion to close at N11.4 trillion. Activity level strengthened with volume and value traded, closing 0.1 percent and 9.2 percent higher than Tuesday’s session at 198.6 million units and N2.3 billion respectively.
The top traded stocks by volume for the day were FBN Holdings (90.4m units), Access Bank (17.9m units) and Diamond Bank (15.1m units) while the top traded stocks by value were FBN Holdings (N689.8m), Stanbic (N334.1m), and Nestle (N316.0m).
Sector performance turned bearish as 3 of the 5 broad sectors closed in the red. The industrial goods index was the best performing sector in today’s session as bargain hunting in Dangote Cement (+2.7%) drove the index higher by 0.8 percent. The insurance index trailed gaining 0.6 percent as price appreciation in Wapic Insurance (+8.1%) and Linkage Assurance (+8.9%) propelled the index northwards.
The day’s laggards were led by the banking and oil & gas indices as sell-offs in Guaranty Trust Bank (-1.8%), UBA (-3.1%), and Seplat (-2.5%) weighed on both indices as they closed lower by 1.0 percent and 0.6 percent respectively. Consumer goods index completed the bears as sell pressures in International Breweries (-4.2%) and UACN (-5.0%) pulled the index lower by 18 basis points.
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) weakened to 1.1x from 1.8x recorded in Tuesday’s session as 19 stocks advanced against 18 decliners. The best performing stocks were VERITASKAP (+10.0%), Diamond Bank (+9.0%), and Linkage Assurance (+8.9%) while Cement Company of Northern Nigeria (-9.7%), Transnational Express (-9.2%) and Prestige Assurance (-9.1%) led the laggards.
Analysts at Afrinvest observed that weakening investors sentiment in Wednesday’s session shows buying momentum is tapering. To this end they anticipate a negative performance in subsequent trading sessions.
