Investors Gain ₦22.7bn as Bargain Hunting Lifts Benchmark Index
Equities investors in the Nigerian Stock Exchange gained ₦22.7 billion on Wednesday as bargain hunting lifted the benchmark index after previous day bearish activity.
As investors cherry-picked SEPLAT (+10.0%), BUACEMENT (+1.0%) and FBNH (+1.0%), the All-Share index rose 18bps to settle at 24,693.73 points.
Consequently, investors’ fortune rise by ₦22.7 billion leading to upsurge in market capitalisation to ₦12.9 trillion at the close of trading session.
Meanwhile, year to date (YTD) loss eased to -8.0%.
Afrinvest stated that activity level waned as volume and value traded declined 32.4% and 50.8% to 101.6 million units and ₦973.6 million respectively.
The top traded stocks by volume were GUARANTY with total volume at 10.9 million units, FBNH 9.7 million units and UBA traded 9.4 million units.
Leading the value chart, GUARANTY traded value settled at ₦244.7 million, SEPLAT ₦166.7 million and ZENITH did ₦83.9 million.
However, Afrinvest said performance across sectors was bullish as 4 of 6 indices under its analysts’ coverage advanced.
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The Banking (-0.2%) and AFR-ICT (-5bps) indices lost due to price weakness in GUARANTY (-0.4%), ETI (-2.4%) and MTNN (-0.1%).
On the flip side, the Oil & Gas (+4.6%) and Insurance (+1.4%) indices appreciated on the back of gains in SEPLAT (+10.0%), OANDO (+1.3%), CORNERSTONE (+10.0%) and PRESTIGE (+8.7%).
The Industrial (+0.3%) and Consumer Goods (+1bp) indices also advanced owing to price appreciation in BUACEMENT (+1.0%), PZ (+5.1%) and HONEYFLOUR (+4.2%).
Meanwhile, investor sentiment as measured by market breadth strengthened to 1.3x from 0.8x recorded previously as 18 stocks advanced against the 14 decliners.
The top gainers were CORNERSTONE (+10.0%), SEPLAT (+10.0%) and PRESTIGE (+8.7%) while NPFMCRFBK (-9.9%), ARBICO (-9.7%) and STUDPRESS (-9.5%) lost the most.
“We believe the performance of the market this week would be majorly dictated by the trend in earnings releases”, Afrinvest stated.
Investors Gain ₦22.7bn as Bargain Hunting Lifts Benchmark Index
