Nigeria’s equities market had an uptick performance Thursday as the All Share Index (ASI) gained 0.6 percent to close at 29,517.80 points, still below the 30,000-mark.
In recovering from a losing streak, market year to date losses moderated to -6.1% while market capitalisation inched higher by N67.5 billion to close at N11.0 trillion.
The day’s performance was buoyed by gains in Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) that grew (+6.1%), Dangote Cement (+0.9%) and Zenith (-2.9%). Activity level also strengthened as volume and value traded increased 64.1 percent to 385.4m units and 36.6 percent to N3.1bn.
The top traded stocks by volume were Custodian and Allied Insurance (120.3m units), Access Bank (60.5m units) and FBN Holdings (48.9m units) while the top traded stocks by value were Custodian and Allied Insurance(N697.6m), Zenith Bank (N515.5m) and FBN Holdings (N347.2bn).
Performance across sectors was mixed as 3 of 5 indices closed in the green. The banking index recorded the highest gain, up 2.7 percent due to price appreciation in Zenith (+2.86%) and Diamond (+5.85%). Similarly, the ndustrial goods and oil & gas indices trailed 2.2 percent and 0.1 percent respectively on the back gains of Dangote Cement (+0.9%), Wapco (+2.56%), Cement Company of Northern Nigeria (+4.85%), Forte Oil (+5.46%) and Eterna Plc (+8.86%).
On the flip side, the insurance and consumer goods indices dipped 2.1 percent and 1.8 percent respectively dragged by losses in NEM Insurance (-10.0%), Linkage Assurance (-9.7%), Mutual Benefit (-4.8), Nestle (-3.4%) and Guinness (-10.0%).
Investor sentiments strengthened to 1.4x from 0.7x recorded Wednesday as 21 stocks advanced against 15 that declined.
The best performers were Law Union and Rocks (+10.0%), Julius Berger (+9.9%) and Eterna Oil (+8.9%) while Guinness (-10.0%), NEM Insurance (-9.9%) and Resort Savings and Loans (-9.8%) led the laggards.
According to analysts at Afrinvest, bearish sentiment still clouds the market largely due to polity risks.
“We envision profitable opportunities in short-term trading on bellwethers as they have been the dominant influences of market performance in recent times,” they noted.
