Nigeria’s equities market rebounds 0.44% on bargain hunting in Dangote Cement, Zenith, Nestle

Nigerian stocks Wednesday rebounded after two days of losses with benchmark index gaining 0.44 percent to settle at 35,103.40 points, just as year-to-date (YTD) return advanced to 30.6 percent.

Market capitalization added N52.4 billion to settle at N12.1 trillion.

The upturn in performance was majorly on account of gains in DANGCEM (+1.9%) as well as ZENITH (+1.8%) and NESTLE (+0.4%). Ex-DANCEM, market would have lost 18 basis points or 0.18 percent.

However, activity level moderated as both the volume and value traded dipped 72.7 percent and 64.9 percent to 136.4 million units and N1.3 billion respectively.

The performance of sector indices was broadly mixed with the industrial goods index leading the gainers’ chart, up 0.8 percent, attributable to rally in DANGCEM (+1.9%). Similarly, the Insurance index expanded 0.7 percent on the back of gains in NEM (+4.3%) and LINKASSURE (+4.5%).

In contrast, the Oil & Gas index shed 0.3 percent due to losses in OANDO (-1.5%) and MOBIL (-1.2%) whilst the Consumer Goods and Banking indices fell 0.2 percent apiece against the backdrop of weak appetite in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-0.9%) and GUARANTY (-1.0%) respectively.

Market breadth turned positive to 1.0x from 0.8x recorded Tuesday as 23 stocks advanced against 22 declining stocks.

Top gainers were CHAMPION (+8.1%), NEIMETH (+4.6%) and LINKASSURE (+4.5%) while the top losers were MORISON (-8.3%), UACPROP (-5.0%) and UPL (-4.8%).

Analysts however note that market breadth is yet to comfortably crossover to the positive territory despite the rebound in the benchmark index.

“The low level of activity as shown in weaker volume and value traded further suggests sentiment for equities remains low; thus, we expect the market to trade sideways in subsequent sessions pending the release of nine-month earnings,” analysts at Afrinvest said.