As expected, it was a bull’s market yesterday as the local bourse closed positive. The All Share Index (ASI) rose 53bps to 35,516.21 points, YTD loss improved to -7.1% and market capitalization increased by N74.8bn to N13.0tn.
Price appreciation in banking bellwethers –GUARANTY (+2.6%), ACCESS (+2.8%) and UBA (+2.5%) were the major drivers of this performance. In the same vein, activity level improved as volume and value traded surged 93.3% and 179.9% higher to 339.7m units and N5.5bn respectively.
The top traded stocks by volume were HMARKINS (100.0m), STANBIC (80.0m) and MAYBAKER (40.1m) while STANBIC (N3.6bn), NESTLE (N0.4bn) and GUARANTY (N0.2bn) were the top traded stocks by value.
Positive Sector Performance
Performance across sectors was equally bullish as 4 of 5 indices closed northwards. The Banking index was the biggest gainer, up 1.7% as investors rallied in GUARANTY (+2.6%), ACCESS (+2.8%) and UBA (+2.5%).
The Oil & Gas and Consumer Goods indices followed suit, rising 0.7% and 0.3% respectively following buying interest in TOTAL (+5.0%), DANGSUGAR (+3.3%), FLOURMILL (+5.1%) and PZ (+7.3%). Similarly, the Industrial Goods index gained marginally, up 2bps due to bargain hunting in PORTPAINT (+9.7%).
The Insurance index was the only loser, shedding 0.2% as investors booked profit in LINKASSURE (-7.4%) and LAWUNION (-9.9%).
Investor sentiment Improves
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) improved to 2.1x from 1.9x recorded the previous day as 33 stocks advanced against 16 stocks that declined.
The top performers were PORTPAINT (+9.7%), JAIZ (+9.6%) and CAVERTON (+9.6%) while IKEJAHOTEL (-9.9%), LAWUNION (-9.9%) and NPFMCRFBK (-9.4%) led laggards. We expect performance to stay upbeat in subsequent sessions as investors hunt for bargains.
