Nigerian Equities Market records highest daily gain since 2015… ASI up 4.9%

The rally in the local bourse continued at the close of trade today, with the benchmark index rising 4.9% to 28,909.37 points – the highest daily increase on record since March 2015. A sustained buy interest in bellwethers – DANGCEM (+9.9%), MTNN (+5.7%) and ZENITH (+9.5%) – drove today’s impressive performance. As a result, investors gained ₦708.1bn as market capitalisation hit ₦15.1tn, the highest since January 2020 while YTD return jumped to 7.7%. Activity level strengthened as volume and value traded improved by 24.1% and 27.9% to 749.5m units and ₦9.5bn respectively. The most traded stocks by volume were ZENITH  (135.7m units), UBA (112.9m units) and FBNH (89.9m units) while ZENITH (₦2.8bn), GUARNTY (₦1.2bn) and UBA (₦768.2m) led by value.

Performance across sectors was laudable as all indices under our coverage sustained previous day’s gains. The Banking and Industrial Goods indices appreciated the most, edging higher by 7.5% and 5.6% respectively, following strong buy interest in ZENITH (+9.5%), GUARANTY (+6.1%) and DANGCEM (+9.9%). The AFR-ICT and Consumer Goods indices trailed, rising 3.0% apiece, owing to price appreciation in MTNN (+5.7%), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+7.2%) and DANGSUGAR (+4.6%). Equally, the Oil & Gas and Insurance indices closed higher by 1.2% and 0.3% respectively as investors cherry-picked OANDO (+9.6%), ARDOVA (+9.0%) and CORNERSTONE (+10.0%).

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) strengthened further to 5.6x from the 3.6x recorded in the previous session as 45 stocks gained against 8 decliners. PRESCO (+10.0%), CORNERSTONE (+10.0%) and INTBREW (+10.0%) were top gainers while NPFMCRBK  (-8.8%), WAPIC (-7.7%) and ACADEMY (-6.9%) led the laggards. We expect the rally in the equities market to continue in the next trading session, with strong buy interest mainly in low-priced bellwethers and high dividend yielding stocks. 

Corporate actions

Lafarge Africa Plc held an emergency meeting of Board of Directors today, October 6, 2020, to discuss its investment in Continental Blue Investment Limited.

Wema Bank Plc announced the appointment of Mrs Ibiye Asime Ekong as an independent Non-Executlve Director of the bank.

Market Statistics for Tuesday, 6th October 2020 

Source: Afrinvest