Nigerian bourse: Industrial goods, banking sectors boost market as index rise 1.2% 

The bullish run at the Nigerian equities market extended into a 14th consecutive trading session Tuesday as the benchmark index (ASI) rose 1.2 percent to close at 35,065.47 points, which further buoyed year-to-date (YTD) return to 30.5 percent.

Market performance was bolstered by appreciation in Dangote Cement (DANGCEM) (+4.9%), United Bank for Africa (UBA) (+10.2%), Zenith Bank (ZENITH) (+3.2%) and Stanbic IBTC (STANBIC) (+5.0%).

Consequently, stock prices gained N142.3 billion as market capitalization settled at N12.1 trillion. However, activity level waned as volume and value traded fell 1.8 percent and 37.7 percent to 288.6 million units and N2.5 billion respectively.

Performance across sectors was bullish as all indices trended northwards. The industrial goods sector advanced the most, up 2.9 percent on the back of gains in DANGCEM (+4.9%) and WAPCO (+1.3%), while positive sentiment towards UBA (+10.2%) and ZENITH (+3.2%) drove the banking index 2.6 percent higher.

Similarly, the oil & gas and insurance indices rose 1.8 percent and 0.6 percent due to upticks in FORTE (+9.4%) and MANSARD (+5.0%) respectively. Appreciation in NESTLE (+0.9%) drove the Consumer Goods index 0.1% higher.

Investor sentiment as reflected by the market breadth (advancers/decliner’s ratio) strengthened to 1.5x (against 1.0x recorded Monday) as 27 stocks advanced while 18 declined.

The best performing stocks were UBA (+10.2%), MAYBAKER (+10.0%) and FORTE (+9.4%), while UNITYBNK (-9.0%), MORRISON (-8.9%) and FIRSTALUM (-5.0%) declined the most.

The bullish run, according to analysts at Afrinvest, is largely driven by the expectations of positive half-year corporate earnings releases, which they expect would continue to influence investors’ sentiments in the near term.

“However, we do not rule out the possibility of some profit taking following the sustained rally,” they opined.