A liquid banking sector Thursday helped to keep the Nigerian equities market bullish for the second day of a three-day week following holidays to celebrate the muslim eid festival, stock traders told Businessamlive.com.
The All-Share Index gained 1.9 percent closing at 33,269.84 points with Year-to-Date return growing by 23.8 percent. An additional N211.8bn was added to stock value as total market capitalisation closed at N11.5 trillion.
Stock traders said sustained gains by shares of a relatively liquid banking sector and consumer goods companies ahead of the release of half-year earnings helped to maintain the positive momentum.
“Whilst we believe that the equities market will continue to ride on the positive macroeconomic developments in the economy – improved flexibility in the administration of Forex and anticipated strong Q2 earnings- we do not rule out the possibility of some end of the week profit taking,” securities analysts had predicted ahead of trading activities.
But price appreciation by DANGCEM, 2.5 percent; NIGERIAN BREWERIES, 2.7 percent; UBA, 5.2 percent, and STANBIC, 5.0 percent, had largely helped to buoy market performance.
Also, market activity improved as volume and value traded rose 13.7 percent and 45.5 percent to settle at 439.2m units and N4.8bn respectively.Performance across sectors was bullish as all indices closed northward.
The Industrial Goods index emerged top gainer, up 2.3 percent on account of gains in DANGCEM, 2.5 percent and WAPCO, 2.9 percent.
The Consumer Goods Index followed, adding 1.6 percent against the backdrop of sustained buying interest in NIGERIAN BREWERIES, 2.7 percent and PZ, 9.9 percent, while the Banking Index 1.5%, trailed owing to positive sentiment towards UBA 5.2 percent and STANBIC 5.0 percent.
Also Read: Banking stocks lift Nigeria’s bourse index as market records 19.53% year-to-date gain
Similarly, the Oil & Gas and Insurance indices appreciated 1.2 percent and 0.2 percent respectively, buoyed by price appreciations in OANDO (4.9 percent), SEPLAT 1.1 percent, NEM, 2.9 percent and AIICO, 3.5 percent.
Investor sentiment improved significantly today as market breadth settled at 2.8x from 1.3x yesterday after 36 stocks advanced against 13 declining stocks. The best performing stocks were PZ, 9.9 percent, DIAMOND, 8.3 percent and UBA, 5.2 percent, while MAYBAKER, 4.9 percent, LIVESTOCK,4.8 percent and SKYEBANK, 4.7 percent declined the most.
Market turnover closed positive as volume moved up by +13.72% as against -7.50% recorded in the previous session. UBA, ACCESS and TRANSCORP were the most active to boost market turnover. UBA and NB topped market value list.
