Price appreciation lifts Nigerian Equities market as investors gain N130bn

Today, the equities market sustained its bullish streak, closing 103bps higher to close at 24,452.23 points following buying interest in DANGCEM (+1.7%), ZENITH (+4.1%) and BUACEMENT (+1.9%). Consequently, investors value appreciated ₦130.0bn to ₦12.7tn while YTD loss improved to -8.9%. Activity level advanced as volume and value traded rose 31.1% and 37.1% to 427.0m units and ₦5.3bn respectively. The most active stocks by volume were ZENITH (75.1m units) ACCESS (50.8m units), and GUINESS (34.2m units) while ZENITH (₦1.2bn), DANGCEM (₦972.4m) and GUARANTY (₦740.9m) led the value chart.  

Performance was bullish as all indices under our coverage advanced save AFR-ICT index which closed flat. The Banking (+2.8%) and Insurance (+1.7%)  indices led the gainers as a result of price appreciation in ZENITH (+4.1%), GUARANTY (+2.4%), AIICO (+4.2%) and WAPIC (+6.9%). Furthermore, gains in DANGCEM (+1.7%), BUACEMENT (+1.9%) and OANDO (+1.1%) saw the Industrial Goods (+1.3%) and Oil & Gas (+0.1%) indices close in the positive region. Lastly, the Consumer Goods index advanced 0.1%, on the back of price upticks in DANGSUGAR (+0.4%) and CADBURY (+1.3%).

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) surged to 7.4x from the 3.6x recorded in the previous session as 37 stocks gained relative to 5 losers. The top gainers were REDSTAREX (+10.0%), JAIZBANK (+9.1%) and LASACO (+8.7%) while UNITYBNK (-3.8%), UNIONDAC (-3.2%) and WAPCO (-2.7%) were top decliners. We expect profit taking in the next trading session.

Market Statistics for Wednesday, 20th May 2020 

Source: Afrinvest