By Charles Abuede Naira gains N3 at start of Christmas week
T-bills close negative, FGN bonds positive
The Nigerian equities market continued its positive run with an advance of 174 basis points as the week opened Monday on the back of a similar positive close last week. It represented 1.74 percent growth as the index settled at 37,443.40 points driven by buying upticks in Dangote Cement (+10.0%), Wapco (+2.3%) and Oando (+9.9%). Read Also:
As a result of the gain market capitalisation rose to N19.6 trillion from N19.24 trillion it opened with following a gain of N333.8 billion gain by investors; and year-to-date return grew by 39.5 percent.
Also, market activity level was mixed as volume traded increased 0.2 per cent to 427.1 million units while value traded decreased by 24.1 per cent to N3.3 billion. The most liquid stocks by volume were AXA Mansard (90.2 million units), Transnational Corporation (36.6 million units) and AIICO Insurance (22.9 million units) while Dangote Cement (N1.3 billion), Guaranty Trust Bank – GTB – (N372.3 million) and Zenith Bank (N298.1 million) led the value chart.
Bullish sector performance
The day’s trading was mixed in terms of sectoral performance with three sector indicators closed in the green, two lost, while the AFR-ICT index was flat. The banking index posted the worst performance as it shed 1.1 per cent due to profit-taking in Zenith Bank (-2.0%), GTBank (-0.7%) and Access Bank (-1.2%). Likewise, the consumer goods index dipped 14 basis points, mirroring sell-offs in International Breweries (-2.7%) and Unilever Plc (-2.8%). Conversely, the industrial goods and insurance indices were up 5.5 per cent and 5.1 per cent respectively on the back of price appreciation in Dangote Cement (+9.1%), Wapco Plc (+2.3%) and AXA Mansard (+9.8%). Lastly, the oil & gas indicator climbed 0.7 per cent higher on the back of buying interest in Oando (+9.9%).
Investor sentiment shrinks
Meanwhile, the sentiment of investors in the market as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) decreased to 1.0x from the 4.4x recorded in the previous session as 22 stocks gained against the 23 that declined. Boc Gas (+10.0%), Dangote Cement (+10.0%) and Oando (+9.9%) were the best performing stocks while Eterna Plc (-9.9%), TRANSEXPR (-9.2%) and Champions Breweries (-8.7%) led the losers.
The NSE 30
The NSE 30 Index increased by 2.12 per cent to close at 1,528.89 points as against 1,497.16 points last Friday. Market turnover closed […]