Nigerian equity market gains 0.05% 

The Nigerian equity market opened the week with a 0.05% gain, driven by appreciation in some largely capitalised stocks like Dangote Cement, GTBank and WAPCO.  

The All-Share Index increased by 0.05% to close at 25,605.59 points, while market capitalisation gained ₦7.1 billion to berth at ₦13.4trillion, moderating the market loss this year to -4.6%.

The volume and value of equities traded were up 20.8% and 45.7% respectively to 257.0m units and ₦3.3bn.
The most traded stocks by volume were CUSTODIAN (49.3m units), WAPCO (29.6m units) and GUARANTY (23.6m units) while GUARANTY (₦739.2m), STANBIC (₦580.8m) and MTNN (₦486.0m) led by value.

The top gainers were NEIMETH (+9.6%), ROYALEX (+7.1%) and CHIPLC (+6.9%), while INTBREW (-8.6%), UAC-PROP (-8.4%) and FCMB (-7.7%) lost the most.

Analysts at Afrinvest expect investors to take position in fundamentally sound stocks, adding that there is room for profit-taking.

The Industrial Goods and Banking indices were the best-performing indicators, up 0.51% and 0.15% respectively due to bargain hunting in DANGCEM (+0.8%), WAPCO (+2.0%), GUARANTY (+0.4%) and FBNH (+1.0%).

The Consumer Goods and Oil & Gas indices led laggards, down 0.5% and 0.08% respectively on the back of sell pressures in INTBREW (-8.6%), NASCON (-0.5%) and OANDO (-0.8%).
Similarly, the Insurance index lost 0.07% owing to price depreciation in CORNERSTONE (-4.6%).
Meanwhile, the AFR-ICT index closed flat.

By Dayo Kiladejo