Nigeria’s stocks benchmark edges higher 0.33% on buy interest in WAPCO, UBA, ETI

Nigerian stocks rallied from a previous day loss to edge higher Thursday on buy interest in bellwethers including WAPCO (+9.9%), UBA (+4.0%) and ETI (+2.9%).

Consequently, the benchmark index, the NSEASI rose 33bps to 32,480.89 points.

To this end, market capitalization increased by N38.6 billion to N11.9 trillion while year-to-date (YTD) loss improved to -15.1 percent. Also, activity level strengthened as volume and value traded rose 18.9 percent and 32.1 percent to 226.0 million units and N2.3 billion respectively.

NEM (39.1m units), FIRSTALUM (36.5m units) and ZENITH (20.7m units) led the top traded stocks by volume while ZENITH (N428.8m), GUARANTY (N357.5m) and SEPLAT (N322.4m) led top traded stocks by value.

Sector performance was largely bullish for the third consecutive day as three of five major indices. The industrial goods index led gainers, up 2.4 percent supported by price appreciation in WAPCO (+9.9%) and BERGER (+5.3%).

Similarly, the banking index advanced 0.7 percent on the back of buying interest in UBA (+4.0%), ETI (+2.8) and ACCESS (0.7%) while a rally in DANGSUGAR (+4.6%) and GUINNESS (+2.3%) buoyed the consumer goods index by 0.2 percent.

On the flip side, the insurance and oil & gas indices fell 0.3 percent apiece following profit taking in PRESTIGE (-9.7%) AIICO (-4.7%) and SEPLAT (-1.1%).

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) weakened to 1.7x from 1.9x recorded the last session as 25 stocks appreciated against 15 decliners.

WAPCO (+9.9%), FIRSTALUM (+9.7%) and UACN (+8.8%) were best performing while PRESTIGE (-9.7%), UNITYBNK (-9.3%) and HONYFLOUR (-6.2%) led laggards.