Charles Abuede
The gaining streak continued on Tuesday for a third consecutive bullish week on the Nigerian Stock Exchange as investors in the market continued their profit-taking deals worth over N32 billion.
The stock market sustained the previous day’s positive performance as gains in BUACEMENT (+2.8%), FLOURMILL (+1.1%), and JBERGER (+3.0%) drove the benchmark index up 25 basis points to settle at 25,291.73 points.
As a result, investors gained N32.7 billion as market capitalisation advanced to N13.2 trillion while the year to date (YTD) loss moderated to -5.8 per cent. Also, the activity level on the trading floor was mixed as volume traded rose 0.1 per cent to 251.3 million units while value traded declined -50.5 per cent to N1.2 billion.Â
The top traded stocks by volume were TRANSCORP (94.9 million units), UBA (33.2 million units), and WEMA (14.6 million units) while UBA (N216.5 million), ZENITH (N176.4 million) and GUARANTY (N120.5 million) led by value.
Market performance by sector
Just like the previous day, performance across sectors was mixed as two indices recorded gains, two lost while two closed flat. The Insurance and Industrial Goods indices closed positive, up 162 basis points and 110 basis points respectively owing to price upticks in  NEM (+9.6%), WAPIC (+6.3%), and BUA CEMENT (+2.8%).
On the flip side, the banking index led the laggards, down 22 basis points due to selling pressures in ACCESS (-1.5%) and GUARANTY (-0.8%). Profit-taking in INTBREW (-1.3%) and GUINNESS (-0.6%) dragged the Consumer Goods index lower by 7 basis points. Lastly, the AFR-ICT and Oil & Gas index closed flat.
Investor sentiment continues waning
Meanwhile, investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) fell to 0.8x from the 1.0x recorded previously as 15 stocks gained against the 20 that declined. The top gainers were NEM (+9.6%), WAPIC (+6.3%) and JAPAULOIL (+4.8%) while BETAGLAS (-10.0%), MAYBAKER (-9.9%) and ARBICO (-9.5%) lost the most.
