NSE Opens Positive as Stock Pickers take Large Bet
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) opens positive as stock pickers take large bet amidst the ongoing Monetary Policy Committee meeting, the first in 2021.
The local bourse started the week bullish as the benchmark index rose 21 basis points (bps) to close at 41,088.96 points.
The rally was attributed to buying interest in bellwether stocks including DANGCEM (+0.9%), AIRTELAF (+0.4%), and UBN (+6.3%).
As a result, year to date return improved to 2.0% while market capitalisation increased ₦45.5 billion to settle at ₦21.5 trillion.
However, in the stock market, activity level declined as volume and value traded fell 43.7% and 47.9% to 333.1 million units and ₦2.6 billion respectively.
The most traded stocks by volume were TRANSCORP (49.0 million units), MANSARD (28.0 million units) and FIDELITY (26.5 million units).
ZENITH (₦419.0 million), AIRTELAF (₦287.2 million) and GUARANTY (₦239.1 million) topped by value.
“Across sectors under our coverage, performance was mixed”, Afrinvest said in a market report.
The Industrial Goods and Banking indices advanced 0.5% apiece due to price appreciation in DANGCEM (+0.9%), WAPCO (+1.9%), UBN (+6.3%) and ACCESS (+0.6%).
Also, gains in AIRTELAF (+0.4%) drove the AFR-ICT index 0.2% higher.
Conversely, the Oil & Gas index led the laggards, down 0.8% following sell-offs in ARDOVA (-9.8%) and OANDO (-3.6%).
Similarly, price declines in INTBREW (-6.5%), NASCON (-5.8%), AIICO (-4.6%) and WAPIC (-8.5%) pushed the Consumer Goods and Insurance indices lower by 0.7% and 0.6% respectively.
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth remained unchanged at 0.7x as 19 stocks advanced against 29 decliners.
ACADEMY (+10.0%), MAYBAKER (+9.9%) and MRS (+9.8%) were the best-performing ticker.
ROYALEX (-10.0%), CILEASING (-10.0%) and ARDOVA (-9.8%) were the losers.
Nigerian Stock Market is Going Vertical, Impressively
“We expect investors to continue seeking bargain hunting opportunities”, Afrinvest stated.
NSE Opens Positive as Stock Pickers Take Large Bet
