Equities market rebound with N3.4bn gain

The Nigerian stock market recorded its first gain of the week as price appreciation in Nigerian Breweries (+1.0 per cent), Stanbic (+3.5%) and International Brewery (+9.6%) drove a 2bps increase in the benchmark index to 28,344.04 points.

As a result, market capitalisation improved to 14.8 trillion as investors gained 3.4 billion while year to date return improved to 5.6%. Activity level was mixed as volume traded rose 45.1% to 535.8m units while value traded fell 0.8% to 5.0bn.

The most traded stocks by volume were Regalins (245.8m units), Guaranty (100.3m units) and UBA (32.9m units) while Guaranty (3.0bn), Stanbic (526.8m) and Zenith (295.3m) led by value.

Performance across sectors was mixed albeit positively skewed as 3 of 6 indices under review closed in the green.

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth improved to 1.2x from the 0.6x recorded previously as 18 stocks gained against the 15 that declined.