Equity market sustains positive sentiments, gains 0.86%

 

The equity market on Wednesday sustained uptrend to second consecutive day, posting a gain of 0.86 percent. Similarly, market breadth closed positive, recording 27 gainers against 19 losers.
As a result, market capitalisation stood at N14.8 trillion as investors gained N125.4 billion in value while year to date return strengthened to 6.8 percent. Price appreciation in Dangote Cement (+2.0 percent) as well as bargain hunting in International Breweries (+4.9 percent) and FBN Holdings (+1.7 percent) drove the bullish performance recorded today. Despite improved market performance, activity level remained mixed as volume traded grew 5.4 percent to 367.2 million units while value traded fell 26.6 percent to N5.3 billion. The top traded stocks by volume were Zenith Bank (100.6 million), Skye Bank (43.0 million) and Access Bank (24.0 million) while Zenith Bank (N2.7 billion), Guaranty Trust Bank (N908.7 million) and Access Bank (N283.2 million) were top traded stocks by value.
The performance across Sectors was largely bullish as 3 of 5 indices under our coverage gained while 2 declined. The Industrial Goods index topped the gainers chart, up 2.0 percent on account of buying interest in Dangote Cement (+2.0 percent) and Lafarge Africa (+3.0 percent) while the Oil & Gas index trailed, 0.8 percent higher largely due to price appreciation in 11 Plc (+8.0 percent). Lastly, the Consumer Goods index closed up 0.7 percent as bargain hunting in International Breweries (+4.9 percent) and Guinness Nigeria (+0.5 percent) drove the positive performance of the index. On the other hand, the Insurance index (-0.7 percent) led decliners as losses in Continental Reinsurance (-3.2 percent) and NEM Insurance (-2.7 percent) dragged the index lower while the Banking index lost 0.3 percent due to sell-offs in UBN (-3.0 percent) and UBA (-0.9 percent).
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) strengthened to 1.4x consequent on 27 stocks advancing against 19 stocks that declined. LEARNAFRICA (+8.2 percent), Unity Bank (+5.0 percent) and 11 Plc (+5.0 percent) were the top performing stocks, while C&I Leasing (-6.8 percent), Red Star Express (-4.9 percent) and Beta Glass (-4.9 percent) led laggards today.