Stock market Bulls extends dominance… ASI up 1.4%

The domestic equities market maintained positive momentum today as the All-Share Index rose 1.4% to 50,835.95 points due to buying interest in MTNN (+6.1%), AIRTELAF (+1.0%), and NB (+10.0%). Accordingly, YTD return advanced to 19.0% (previously 17.3%) while market capitalisation increased ₦382.5bn to ₦27.4tn. Trading activity was mixed as volume traded dipped 30.9% to 462.6m units while value traded rose 38.7% to ₦8.3bn.

Across sectors within our coverage, performance was bullish as 4 indices inched higher while 2 lost. The AFR-ICT and Consumer Goods indices rose 3.3% and 2.9% respectively due to price appreciation in MTNN (+6.1%), AIRTELAF (+1.0%), NB (+10.0%), and GUINNESS (+10.0%). Similarly, the Insurance and Industrial Goods indices advanced 0.9% and 0.1% respectively on account of price rally in AIICO (+6.7%), CORNERST (+1.8%), WAPCO (+1.7%), and CUTIX (+9.2%). Conversely, the Oil & Gas and Banking indices declined 0.5% and 0.1% respectively, driven by profit-taking in OANDO (-7.4%), ZENITH (-0.6%), and UBN (-1.6%).

Investor sentiment, as measured by market breadth, improved to 0.18x from 0.07x in the previous session as 32 stocks advanced, 22 declined while 56 closed flat. In the last trading session of the week, we expect the market to gain mildly driven by sustained positive investor sentiment.