The Nigerian equities market applied full breaks on a three day losing streak on Thursday when the index of performance measurement, the Nigeria Stock Exchange All Share Index, rose by 0.65 percent at the close of trading for the day.
The Index rose to 37,743.22 points, amidst bargain hunting in value stocks such as Dangote Cement. As a result, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date losses moderated to -1.40 percent and -1.31 percent, respectively.
Among the sector indices, the industrial goods (+1.25%) index posted the largest gain, while the banking (+0.25%) and consumer goods (+0.15%) indices followed suit as interests were stacked in DANGCEM (+2.24%), UBA (+0.49%), and Nigerian Breweris (+1.80%) shares respectively. On the flip side, the insurance (-1.26%) and oil & gas (-0.94%) indices closed lower, owing to selloffs of NEM (-8.82%) and MOBIL (-7.89%) stocks respectively.
Market breadth turned positive with 23 gainers and 19 losers, led by MULTIVERSE (+10.00%) and NEM (-8.82%) respectively.
The total value of trades increased by 88.31 percent to N5.89 billion, while volume of trades dipped by 0.52 percent to 503.11 million units, amidst cross deals in UBN (6 million units at N5.70/unit), ACCESS (19 million units at N10.35/unit), and UBA (145 million units at N10.35/unit) stocks, while total deals stood at 3,710.
In the absence of a one-off catalyst in the near term (save for potential better-than-expected Q2 corporate earnings), analysts at Cordros capital guide investors to trade with caution, as sideways trading is likely to persist. “However, still-positive macroeconomic fundamentals remain supportive of long-term gains,” the analysts said in an investment note on Thursday.
