Nigerian Stock Market Index Inched Up as Buying Interest Improved
The Nigerian stock market index inched up on Wednesday as buying interest improved strongly.
Following the previous day’s loss, the equities segment of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) posted a positive performance, gaining 17 basis point (bps) to settle at 40,465.15 points.
Market data shows that the performance uptrend was driven by appreciation in ZENITH (+2.0%), UBA (+2.4%) and INTBREW (+2.5%) stocks.
As a result, stock market year to date return improved to 0.5% while market capitalisation advanced by ₦36.1 billion to settle at ₦21.2 trillion.
Market data indicates that activity level decreased as volume and value traded fell 46.4% and 57.3% to 249.5 million units and ₦2.2 billion respectively.
The most traded stocks by volume were ACCESS (21.9 million units), MANSARD (13.3 million units) and UBA (13.2 million units).
Meanwhile GUARANTY (₦342.0 million), ZENITH (₦310.4 million) and STANBIC (₦306.2 million) topped by value.
Afrinvest Limited hinted that performance across sectors was bullish as 4 of 6 indices under the firm’s coverage gained save the AFR-ICT and Industrial Goods indices which closed flat.
The Insurance and Oil & Gas indices topped the gainers, rising 3.0% and 0.1% respectively due to buying interest in MANSARD (+7.8%), NEM (+9.7%) and OANDO (+2.1%).
The Banking and Consumer Goods indices gained 0.8% and 0.3% respectively, buoyed by price appreciation in ZENITH (+2.0%), UBA (+2.4%) and INTBREW (+2.5%).
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth strengthened to 1.4x from the 0.4x recorded previously as 22 stocks advanced against 16 decliners.
NEM (+9.7%), BOCGAS (+9.5%) and LINKASSURE (+9.3%) were the best-performing tickers while SOVRENINS (-8.3%), ETERNA (-8.2%) and DEAPCAP (-8.0%) were the losers.
“We expect a bullish run for the remaining days of the week”, Afrinvest said.
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Nigerian Stock Market Index Inched Up as Buying Interest Improved
