Bargain Hunting Drives Equities Market Upward by ₦37.3 billion
Bargain hunting lifted the performance of the Nigerian Stock Exchange On Tuesday as All Share Index gained 30 basis points to close at 24,097.48.
Analysts said gain resurfaced in the equities market due to bargain hunting in AIRTELAF (+3.7%), BUACEMENT (+2.5%) and ZENITH (+1.9%).
Consequently, market capitalisation advanced ₦37.3 billion to settle at ₦12.6 trillion while YTD loss improved to -10.2%. 
Meanwhile, activity level fell as volume and value traded decreased by 18.0% and 7.1% to 155.5 million units and ₦2.6 billion respectively.
The most active stocks by volume were GUARANTY which traded 19.7 million units, ACCESS transacted 13 million units and MTNN did 10.2 million units.
Leading the value chart, MTNN transacted ₦1.2 billion, GUARANTY did ₦413.8 million and ZENITHBA ₦129.8 million.
Afrinvest said Performance across sectors was mixed as 3 of 6 indices that the firm cover gained.
The AFR-ICT advanced 1.1% to top gainers on the back of price appreciation in AIRTELAF (+3.7%).
COVID-19: A Time for Opportunistic BUY?
Similarly, the Banking and Industrial Good indices advanced 0.9% and 0.1% respectively following bargain hunting in ZENITH (+1.9%), UBA (+2.5%) and BUACEMENT (+2.5%).
Conversely, the Insurance index pulled back by 1.9% to top the laggards due to profit taking in CUSTODIAN (-9.1%) and MANSARD (-9.7%).
In the same vein, the Consumer Goods and Oil & Gas indices lost 0.5% and 2bps respectively due to sell-offs in UNILEVER (-9.8%), NASCON (-5.0%) and MRS (-9.8%).
Today, investor sentiment as measured by market breadth rose to 0.9x from the 0.8x recorded in the previous session as 17 stocks advanced against the 18 that declined.
The top gainers were REDSTAREX (+9.8%), WAPIC (+6.1%) and CILEASING (+5.3%) while OKOMUOIL (-9.9%), MRS (-9.8%) and UNILEVER (-9.8%) were the top decliners.
“Given the low prices, we expect bargain hunting to continue in the near term”, Afrinvest stated.
Bargain Hunting Drives Equities Market Upward by ₦37.3 billion
