Bulls resilient despite national unrest as investors made N19.7bn profit

LAST WEEK, THE EQUITIES market sustained the previous week’s positive performance as investors ignored the violence and unrest in the country and positioned ahead of the release of Q3 earnings. However, investors are optimistic that the trend in corporate earnings releases would influence market performance this week.

The local bourse recorded gains on 3 of the 5 trading sessions and as a result, the All-Share Index increased 13 basis points week on week to 28,697.06 points. Furthermore, investors gained N19.7 billion as market capitalisation rose to N14.99 trillion while the year to date (YTD) return improved to 6.9 per cent.

On the other hand, the activity level fell last week as average volume and value traded declined 23.0 per cent and 14.4 per cent to 301.1 million units and N3.9 billion respectively. The most traded stocks by volume were United Bank for Africa (UBA) with 172.7 million units; Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) with 158.6 million units; and Zenith Bank with 149.4 million units while GTB at N4.8 billion, Zenith Bank at N3.1 billion and UBA at N1.2 billion, led by value.

Performance across sectors was bearish as 4 of 6 indices declined week on week. The Consumer Goods and AFR-ICT indices were the outliers, up 2.9 per cent and 2 basis points respectively as a result of price appreciation in Champion Breweries (+5.0%), International Breweries (+18.2%) and NASCON (+10.0%). On the other hand, the Banking index led the laggards, down 1.4 per cent following sell-offs in Wema Bank (-5.1%) and FBN Holdings (-4.7%).

The Oil & Gas and Insurance indices also lost 0.7 per cent and 0.6 per cent respectively following price declines in Eterna Plc (-9.0%), Linkage Assurance (-9.1%) and Mutual Benefit (-4.8%). Lastly, price weakness in WAPCO (-5.0%) dragged the Industrial Goods index lower by 0.1 per cent week on week.

Meanwhile, Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/ decline ratio) fell to 0.8x from 1.8x last week as 28 stocks gained against the 34 that declined. International Breweries (+18.2 %), CUTIX (+17.3%) and NASCON (+10.0%) led the top gainers while Flour Mills (-9.9%), Linkage Assurance (-9.1%) and Eterna Plc (-9.0%) led the decliners.