Nigerian stocks Tuesday kept up the tempo of the previous trading session as all-share index inched up 1.3 percent to close at a 34-month high of 37,999.56 basis points. Consequently year-to-date gain settled at 41.40 percent.
Similarly, market capitalization gained N163.4 billion to close at N13.1 trillion, against the N12.9 trillion achieved at the previous session.
Activity level, however, waned as volume and value traded slid 14.3 percent and 12.5 percent to 218.2 million units and N5.1 billion respectively. The volume of shares traded closed lower as investors bought and sold 218.22 million shares valued at N5.07 billion in 5,336 deals.
This is in contrast with a turnover of 254.49 million shares worth N5.79 billion transacted in 4,600 at the previous session.
Performance across sectors was bearish as all indices closed in the red save for the consumer goods index, which closed 5.4 percent higher owing to gains in NESTLE (+9.0%) and NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+5.0%).
On the flip side, the oil and gas index dipped by 0.8 percent while insurance index dipped by 0.6 percent respectively due to sell offs in OANDO (-3.9%), CONOIL (-5.0%), MANSARD (-2.4%) and NEM (-3.5%).
Negative sentiment towards DANGCEM (-0.3%) and CCNN (-0.2%) dragged the industrial goods index 0.2 percent lower, whilst the banking index slid 0.1 percent on account of losses in ZENITH (-2.4%) and UBA (-1.2%).
Investor sentiment strengthened as market breadth came in strong at 1.5x (relative to 0.8x recorded previously) as 30 stocks appreciated against 20 decliners.
The best performing stocks Tuesday were GUINNESS (+10.3%), DANGFLOUR (+10.2%) and NAHCO (+10.0%) while MORISON(-8.9%) CAVERTON (-8.7%) and CONOIL (-5.0%) declined the most.
Analysts expect subsequent market performance to be shaped by the release of outstanding earnings scorecards, particularly among Tier-1 players in the banking sector.
Performance is also expected to be positive over the medium term with momentum softening as short-term traders take profit in subsequent sessions.
