Equities market gains N612bn in 3 days

Bargain hunting in bellwethers extended the positive performance in the local bourse to the third consecutive trading session as Investors gained a total of N612 billion to pull the year to date (YTD) out of the negative territory to 0.5%.

The market gained N47.4bn on Monday, N328bn on Tuesday, and N210bn yesterday while the All Share Index (ASI) grew 1.5% to close at 38,435.29 points.

Yesterday positive performance was largely due to buying interest in large cap stocks NIGERIANBREWERIES (+5.0%), DANGCEM (+0.9%) and ZENITH (+3.5%).

Consequently, investors gained N210.2bn as market capitalization rose to N13.9tn. Activity level strengthened as the volume and value traded trended 15.7% and 11.9% higher to 393.1m units and N6.7bn respectively.

The top by volume traded stocks were ZENITH (110.6m), FIDELITY (63.9m) and UBA (22.5m) while ZENITH (N3.1bn), DANGCEM (N677.5m) and SEPLAT (N549.8m) led the top traded stocks by value.

Overall performance across sectors was bullish as all indices under our coverage trended northwards. The Industrial Goods index was the top performer, up 4.2% on the back of gains in DANGCEM (+0.9%) and WAPCO (+9.4%).

Trailing were the Consumer Goods, Banking and Insurance indices which rose 2.5%, 1.1% and 1.0% respectively as a result of bargain hunting in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+4.9%), GUINNESS (+5.0%), ZENITH (+3.5%),FIDELITY (+9.9%), CONTINSURE (+4.9%) and AIICO (+4.9%). Lastly, the Oil & Gas index reversed its negative performance from the prior trading session to close 0.6% higher following buying interest in OANDO (+9.7%) and FORTE (+4.2%).

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) remained strong at 2.6x as 41 stocks advanced in contrast to 16 stocks that declined.

The top performing stocks were FIDELITY (+9.9%), OANDO (+9.7%) and DIAMOND (+9.5%) whileGUINEAINS (-5.0%), MBENEFIT (-5.0%) and NPFMCRFBK (-4.7%) were the worst performers.

Analyst at Arinvest maintain their near term positive outlook on the market as they expect sustained bargain hunting by investors to continue to buoy performance.