Charles Abuede
Equity investors creamed N2 billion on the Nigerian Stock Exchange as trading activities continued being bullish with a marginal uptick on Tuesday, the second session for the week.
Market analysts maintained their position that trading will be characterised by bargain hunting to support the gains of the opening two days as the week progresses to Friday when the sessions are expected to come to a close.
There were buying interests in the United Bank for Africa (UBA) stocks, up 2.3 percent, Dangote Sugar (DANGSUGAR), up 2.4 percent and Access Bank (ACCESS), up 0.8%, which helped to drive the All-Share Index two basis points higher to settle at 25,136.49 points.
As a result of that, investors posted a gain of N2 billion as market capitalisation advanced to N13.1 trillion while the Year to date loss improved to -6.4 per cent. Activity level in the market increased as volume and value traded jumped 68.1 per cent and 33.3 per cent to 271.0 million units and N2.5 billion respectively.
Individual stock performances showed top the top traded stocks by volume to be Zenith Bank (ZENITH), which had 35.8 million units exchange hands; Guaranty Trust Bank (GUARANTY) with 35.3 million units traded for the day and Lasaco Assurance (LASACO) which traded 33.1 million units of its shares on the day.
On the other hand, in terms of the value of the stocks traded, top performers were Guaranty Trust Bank (GUARANTY) which had the value of its traded stocks at N877 million; Zenith Bank (ZENITH) at N600.2 million; and Access Bank (ACCESS) at N152.1 million in that order.
According to market analysts at Afrinvest Research, performance across sectors was bearish as few of the market indices closed in the red while the AFR-ICT index remained flat.
Profit-taking in Oando Plc (OANDO) at -9.7 percent; ARDOVA, also at -9.7 percent and CONOIL at -9.8 percent, pulled the Oil & Gas index down 1.8 per cent to top the decliners.
Similarly, the Consumer and Industrial Goods indices shed 10 basis points and two basis points respectively due to sell pressures in NIGERIAN BREWERIES at -2.8 percent and WAPCO at 0.4 percent.
On the other hand, Insurance and Banking indices recorded respective gains of 0.9 per cent and 0.5 per cent, driven by price appreciation in UBA at +2.3 percent; ACCESS at +0.8 percent and CORNERSTONE at +9.4 percent.
Meanwhile, investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) strengthened to 1.2x from the 1.1x recorded previously as 16 stocks gained relative to the 13 that declined. The top gainers were UPL at +9.9%, CORNERSTONE at +9.4 percent and LASACO at +7.1%, while CONOIL at -9.8 percent; OANDO at -9.7 percent and ARDOVA at -9.7 percent lost the most.
