Equities Market Lagos – After five consecutive trading days of bearish run, the Nigerian equities market rebounded yesterday when the two major indicators, the All Share Index and Market Capitalisation appreciated by 0.2 per cent each.
In today’s trading session, the 5-day bearish run in the domestic equities market was
The halt was as a result of bargain hunting in Nestle Nigeria (+4.7%), Sterling Bank (+9.8%) and Guaranty Trust Bank (+0.6%).
The All Share Index (ASI) settled at 31,360.28 points while Market capitalisation rose N17.5 billion to settle at N11.7 trillion while the year-to-date (YTD) loss moderated to – 0.2 per cent.
Activity level was mixed as volume traded advanced 71.8 per cent to 377.1 million units while value traded fell 22.8 per cent to N2.3 billion.
Diamond Bank with 113.6 million units, Chams with 72.1 million units and FBN Holdings with 71.5 million units were the top traded stocks by volume while FBN Holdings at N586.2 million, Zenith Bank at N321.4 million and Diamond Bank at N283.4 million were the top traded stocks by value.
Performance across sectors was mixed as two of five indices under our coverage closed in the red while one closed flat.
The Consumer Goods and Banking indices were up 1.6 per cent and 0.04 per cent respectively on account of bargain hunting in Nestle Nigeria (+4.2%), Sterling Bank (+9.8%), and Guaranty Trust (+0.6%).
On the flip side, the Industrial Goods index shed 0.4 per cent due to selling pressures on Dangote Cement (-1.0%) and Lafarge WAPCO (-0.8%) while losses in Prestige Assurance (-7.4%) and NEM Insurance(-0.8%) led to a 0.2 per cent decline in the Insurance index. The Oil & Gas index was however flat despite gains in Eterna (+9.1%).
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) improved to 0.7x from 0.3x recorded on Tuesday as 12 stocks advanced against 18 decliners.
Chemical and Allied Products (+10.0%), Sterling Bank (+9.8%) and Eterna (+9.1%) were best performing stocks while Regal insurance (-7.7%), Africa Prudential (-7.5%) and Prestige Assurance (-7.4%) led laggards.