Charles Abuede
- Investors record N50.1bn, first for week
The banking sector and ICT indices were the top performers on Thursday as bargain hunting halted the bearish momentum in the Nigerian stock market, allowing it to record its first gain this week as investors pulled N50.1 billion from profit-taking deals, which were buoyed by price appreciations in Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank and MTN Nigeria.
The local bourse saw the All-Share Index advance 38 basis points to settle at 25,520.97 points owing to bargain hunting in ZENITH (+3.4%), GUARANTY (+1.9%) and MTNN (+0.4%). Market capitalization therefore rose to N13.3 trillion as investors gained N50.1 billion while the year to date (YTD) loss improved to -4.9 per cent.
Meanwhile, the activity level on the trading floor waned as volume and value traded decreased 13.2 per
cent and 42.7 per cent respectively to 236.4 million units and N1.6 billion. The most traded stocks by volume were ZENITH (33.2 million units), FIDELITY (30.0 million units) and MBENEFIT (25.0 million units) while ZENITH (N546.8 million), GUARANTY (N221.9 million) and SEPLAT (N174.3million) led by value.
Bullish sector performance
While market performance across sectors was bullish with four indicators gaining and two losing, the insurance and oil & gas indices lost 1.7 per cent and 1.3 per cent respectively following sell pressures in CORNERSTONE (-7.6%), CUSTODIAN (-3.0%) and SEPLAT (-2.5%).
On the other hand, banking and AFR-ICT indices were the best performing indicators, gaining 2.3 per cent and 0.2 per cent respectively, buoyed by price appreciation in ZENITH (+3.4%), GUARANTY (+1.9%) and MTNN (+0.4%). Similarly, the consumer and industrial goods indices posted respective gains of 0.1 per cent and two basis points, on the back of buying interest in Nigerian Breweries (+0.1%), HONYFLOUR (+4.4%) and WAPCO (+0.4%).
Investor sentiment improves
Meanwhile, investor sentiment in the market, as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio), rose to 1.8x from the 0.3x recorded previously as 22 stocks gained against the 12 that declined. The top gainers were ETERNA (+9.7%), CILEASING (+8.5%) and WEMABANK (+7.8%), while ABCTRANS (-7.7%), CORNERSTONE (-7.6%) and CHIPLC (-5.9%) lost the most.
