Stock Market Starts Week With N76.6bn Gain

The nation’s stock market opened the week with a N76.6bn gain as the All-Share Index rose by 60 basis points to settle at 26,695.18bps following major price appreciation in Dangote Cement Plc, Access Bank Plc and United Bank for Africa Plc.

The market capitalisation of equities increased to N12.884tn from N12.801tn as the year-to-date loss eased to -15.1 per cent.

Activity level improved as volume and value traded advanced by 9.8 per cent and 43.2 per cent to 170.524 million units and N2.051bn, respectively.

Banking stocks emerged as the top traded stocks by volume as Access Bank (41.2 million units), UBA (29.2 million units) and Zenith Bank Plc (25.6 million units) were the top three traded stocks by volume while Zenith Bank (N479.8m), Access Bank (N396.9m) and Guaranty Trust Bank Plc (N332.9m) led the value chart.

Generally, the performance across sectors was bullish as all indices recorded gains, save the AFR-ICT index that closed flat.

The banking index led the gainers, up by 1.6 per cent on the back of gains recorded in Access Bank, UBA and GTB while the industrial and consumer goods indices trailed, rising by one per cent and 0.4 per cent, respectively, on the back of buying interest in Dangote Cement, Lafarge Africa Plc, Guinness Nigeria Plc and PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc.

The insurance and oil and gas indices rose by 0.3 per cent and 0.1 per cent, respectively, following price appreciation in NEM Insurance Plc and Oando Plc.

Investor sentiment strengthened as market breadth (advance/decline ratio) strengthened to 2.1x from the 1.7x recorded on Friday as 17 stocks gained against eight losers.

The top gainers were Guinness, A.G. Leventis Nigeria Plc and PZ Cussons while the top three losers were Cornerstone Insurance Plc, Neimeth Pharmaceuticals Plc and University Press Plc.

“Despite the good performance, we are not optimistic of a sustainable rebound in the equities market in the near term,” analysts at Afrinvest Securities Limited said.