Following a 6-day decline in market performance, bargain hunting in bellwethers – ZENITH(+1.8%), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+1.5%) and GUARANTY (+0.7%)- pulled the All Share Index (ASI) 33bps higher to 41,633.79 points while YTD gain improved to 8.9%.
Accordingly, investors gained N196.0bn in value as market capitalization increased to N15.0tn. Activity level also strengthened as volume and value traded grew 11.0% and 30.2% to 542.2m units and N7.3bn respectively.
The top traded stocks by volume were ACCESS (126.0m), ZENITH (67.2m) and GUARANTY (51.8m) while GUARANTY (N2.3tn),ZENITH (N1.9tn) and ACCESS (N1.4tn) were the top traded stocks by value.
Bullish Sector Performance
All indices under our watch closed in the green indicating a bullish performance across sectors. The Insurance index led gainers, up 1.6% largely due to a rally in CONTINSURE (+4.9%), NEM (+4.8%) and MANSARD (+2.0%).
The Oil & Gas index trailed with a 0.6% appreciation as investors took position in 11 Plc (+4.4%). Also, the Banking and Industrial Goods index inched 0.5% higher apiece primarily driven by gains in ZENITH (+1.8%), GUARANTY (+0.7%), UBA (+2.2%), and WAPCO (+1.0%).
In the same vein, the Consumer Goods index added 0.4%, due to buying interest in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+1.5%) and PZ (+2.7%).
Investor Sentiment Strengthens
Investor sentiment measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) rose to 1.0x from 0.6x recorded yesterday consequent on 29 stocks advancing against 28 stocks that declined.
The best performing stocks today were GLAXOSMITH (+10.2%), JAPAUL OIL (+8.6%) and MAYBAKER (+5.0%) while MULTIVERSE (-8.7%), UNITYKAP (-8.3%) and FTNCOCOA (-7.7%) led the losers chart.
In line with our expectation, the market rebounded yesterday; we expect this positive performance to be sustained in subsequent trading sessions barring any negative earnings surprise.
