Market Continues Bullish Run…NSE ASI gains 51bps

The Nigerian Equities market stayed bullish Wednesday as the market closed positive for the second trading session in the week. The benchmark Index — the All Share Index (ASI) gained 51basis points to close at 31, 355.28 points. Market Capitalisation also increased by N53.2 billion closing at N10.5trillion. Market’s positive outing was driven by the rally on Banking and Consumer Goods stocks. GTBank rose 4.0 per cent; Zenith 1.6 per cent; and Nigerian Breweries 0.8 per cent. Similarly, market activities measured by volume and value, rose by 13.5 per cent and 5.0 per cent accordingly closing at 528.9million units and N5.3bn respectively.
All sector indices trended north. The Banking sector index led the gainers, appreciating 1.0 per cent against the backdrop of gains in GTBank 4.0 per cent and Zenith 1.6 per cent. The Industrial Goods index also closed positive with 0.5 per cent followed by the Consumer Goods index 0.3 per cent and the Insurance index 0.1 per cent. The Oil and Gas Index however closed flat today.
Market sentiments remained positive today as market breadth (advancers/decliners ratio) pegged at 1.4x with 26 gainers and 18 decliners. Topping the price gainers list were AIICO 6.7 per cent, followed by Ikeja Hotel 5.0 per cent and Conoil 5.0 per cent whilst BETAGLAS 5.0 per cent, Champion 4.9 per cent and Costain 4.1 per cent led the losers. We expect the market to sustain the bullish run given our expectation for more corporate releases before the end of the week.