Nigerian equity market gains 0.39% to extend uptrend

Price appreciation in WEMA BANK, AIICO, AFRIPRUD, BUACEMENT, and 12 other stock spurred the Nigerian equity market to eight successive trading sessions gain on Tuesday.

The All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 104.12 absolute points, representing a growth of 0.39% to close at 26,611.96 points, while market capitalisation improved by ₦54.4billion to ₦13.9trillion as the YTD return improved to -0.9%.

The volume and value of equity traded climbed 22.7% and 12.4% to 413.1m units and ₦4.5bn respectively. The most traded stocks by volume were ZENITH (90.9m units), STERLNG BANK (82.3m units) and UBA (56.7m units) while ZENITH BANK (₦1.6bn), DANGOTE CEMENT (₦1.0billion) and GTBank (₦448.2m) led by value.

The Industrial Goods index recorded the most gain, up 0.8% due to buying interest in BUACEMENT (+3.3%). In the same vein, the Banking and AFR-ICT indices advanced 0.4% apiece owing to price upticks in ZENITH (+1.2%), GUARANTY (+0.2%) and MTNN (+0.8%).

Furthermore, the Oil & Gas and Insurance indices rose 0.3% and 0.2% respectively due to price appreciation in SEPLAT (+0.5%), OANDO (+0.5%), and AIICO (+6.3%). Lastly, the Consumer Goods index climbed 0.1% following price appreciation in DANGSUGAR (+1.6%) and HONYFLOUR (+2.2%).

WEMABANK (+7.5%), AIICO (+6.3%) and AFRIPRUD (+4.0%) were top gainers while ETRANZACT (-10.0%), CORNERSTONE (-8.5%) and WAPCO (-6.2%) led the underperformers. We expect sustained buying interest in subsequent trading sessions as investors continue to take position in fundamentally sound stocks ahead of earnings releases.

Dayo Kiladejo