Bargain Hunting Lifts NSE Market Cap by ₦60.4 billion
Bargain hunting lifted the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) by ₦60.4 billion on Wednesday due to improved sentiment.
Specifically, buying interest in BUACEMENT (+8.5%), WAPCO (+5.0%) and STERLING (+9.6%) pushed the benchmark index up by 47 bps to close at 24,595.05 points.
As a result, year to date loss eased to -8.4% while market capitalisation appreciated to ₦12.8 trillion.
Meanwhile, activity level waned as volume and value traded fell 29.5% and 67.0% to 198 million units and ₦1 billion respectively.
The most active stocks by volume were WAPIC which traded 30.3 million units, UBA did 20.2 million units and TRANSCORP transacted 19.4 million units.
GUARANTY led in term of value of stocks traded with ₦158 million followed by UBA ₦123.5 million and ZENITH ₦90.8 million.
Afrinvest said sectors under its coverage recorded a bearish performance as only 2 of 6 indices gained.
Also, the Banking index dropped by 0.9% to lead the losers following sell-offs in ZENITH (-2.5%) and GUARANTY (-0.9%).
Trailing, the Insurance (-0.8%) and Consumer Goods (-0.5%) indices declined as a result of price weakness in WAPIC (-5.7%), AIICO (-2.2%), DANGSUGAR (-2.5%) and FLOURMILL (-1.8%).
On the flip side, the Industrial Goods (+1.4%) and Oil & Gas (+0.3%) indices advanced, due to price appreciation in BUACEMENT (+8.5%), WAPCO (+5.0%) and OANDO (+3.5%).
Meanwhile, AFR-ICT index closed flat.
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth strengthened to 0.5x from the 0.3x recorded in the previous session as 12 stocks advanced against 22 losers.
The top gainers were CADBURY (+9.6%), STERLING (+9.6%) and CHAMS (+9.5%).
NEIMETH (-9.7%), LEARNAFRICA (-7.7%) and WAPIC (-5.7%) were the top decliners.
“We expect bargain hunting to lift the benchmark index in subsequent trading sessions”, Afrinvest said.
NSE Market Capitalisation Soars as Stocks Gain N174.1 Billion
Bargain Hunting Lifts NSE Market Cap by ₦60.4 billion by Julius Alagbe
