Buying Interest in Banking Stocks Lifts Market Performance

Buying Interest in Banking Stocks Lifts Market Performance

Buying interest in banking stocks raised market performance on Thursday as investors fortune Increased N14 billion. Consolidating the previous day gain, the domestic stock market extended the bullish sentiment as the All-Share Index rose 7 basis points to settle at 38,799.83 points.

The uptrend was driven following the positive outturn seen across some heavyweight banking names – ZENITH

(+3.8%), GUARANTY (+2.7%) and ACCESS (+1.9%).

Consequently, year to date loss at moderated to 3.7% while equities market capitalisation appreciated to ₦20.3 trillion.

It was however observed that trading activity worsened as volume and value traded declined 59.2% and 62.4% respectively to 145.3m units and ₦1.6 billion.

The most traded stocks by volume were FBNH (21.9 million units), GUARANTY (20.5 million units), and ZENITH (17.6 million units). Meanwhile GUARANTY (₦589.2 million), ZENITH (₦379.9 million), and FBNH (₦157.2 million) led by value.

Mixed Sector Performance

Afrinvest said performance across sectors under its coverage was mixed. The Banking index led the gainers, up 2.2% due to price appreciation in ZENITH (+3.8%), GUARANTY (+2.7%) and ACCESS (+1.9%).

Similarly, the Insurance and Oil & Gas indices advanced by 0.6% and 0.4% respectively as we saw buying interest in AIICO (+5.0%) and OANDO (+5.2%).

Conversely, the Consumer Goods index declined by 0.2% due to profit taking in INTBREW (-2.6%) and HONYFLOUR (-5.0%). AFR-ICT and Industrial Goods indices closed flat.

Investor Sentiment Strengthens

Investor sentiment, as measured by market breadth, strengthened to 1.1x from 0.4x recorded in the previous session as 13 stocks advanced against 12 decliners.

CHIPLC (+9.7%), JAPAULGO (+9.4%) and OANDO (+5.2%) were the top gainers while ROYALEX (-7.7%), STANBIC (-6.9%), and JAIZBANK (-6.1%) were the top decliners.

“In the last trading session of week, we expect to see a mild reduction in the market gains as investors tilt a little towards the fixed income market”, Afrinvest said.

Read Also: Stocks Decline N78.5 Billion as Market Opens with Sell-offs

Buying Interest in Banking Stocks Lifts Market Performance