The Nigerian equities market clawed back gains after a 2-day sell-off as the all-share index (ASI) rose by a marginal 0.05 percent to close at 36,634.89 points.
Market year-to-date gain improved to 36.3 percent just as market capitalization increased by N77.1 billion to settle at N12.8 trillion.
The day’s market performance was bolstered by price appreciations in GUARANTY (+1.4%), INTBREW (+3.6%) and PZ (+5.0%).
In similar vein, activity level improved as volume traded advanced 18.2 percent to 217.8 million units while value traded surged 252.1 percent to N11.7 billion.
The surge in activity level is largely due to NIGERIAN BREWERIES, which accounted for 31.4 percent and 81.1 percent of total volume and value traded respectively.
Performance across sectors was mixed as three of five indices closed in the red. The insurance Index was the biggest loser, down 0.8% as LINKASSURE (-3.4%) and AIICO (-1.8%) recorded losses.
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Similarly, the oil & gas index fell 0.2 percent, largely on the back of price depreciation in SEPLAT (-1.0%). Also, the consumer goods index shed 0.1 percent due to selling pressure in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-0.6%) and DANGSUGAR (-2.1%). However, the industrial goods index closed the day flat.
Investor sentiment strengthened, albeit still negative, as market breadth (advance/decline ratio) rose from 0.6x the previous session to 0.7x today as 17 stocks advanced against 25 that declined.
Top performers were BOCGAS (+9.9%), PZ (+5.0) and AGLEVENT (+4.7%) while CAVERTON (-9.0%), ETERNA (-5.8%) and UPL (-5.0%) led laggards.
Analysts at Afrinvest said the marginal rebound recorded today was in line with their expectation after the large selloffs in prior trading sessions.
“We expect the market to further claw back gains in tomorrow’s session on bargain hunting,” they noted.
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