Local stock market closes flat again

The domestic equities market closed yesterday’s trading session flat as the benchmark index stood at 28,344 points while market capitalisation and return remained unchanged at 14.8 trillion and 5.6 per cent respectively.

Activity level rose as average volume and value traded improved by 56.7% and 60.1% to 342.2 million units and 5 billion.

The most traded stocks by volume were UBA (92.9m units), Zenith (67.2m units) and Guaranty Trust Bank(67.2m units) while Guaranty (1.8bn), Zenith (1.4bn) and UBA (613.6m) led by value.

Performance across sectors was mixed as two of six indices under review closed southwards, 2 gained while 2 closed flat.

The Banking and Insurance indices were the underperformers, down 0.7% and 0.4% following losses in Access (-1.3%), Guaranty (-1.7%) and AIICO (-3.6%).

On the flip side, gains in Guinness (+3%), International Brewery (+3.2%) and Wapco (+4%) buoyed the Consumer and Industrial Goods indices higher by 0.4% and 0.3% respectively while the Oil & Gas and AFR-ICT indices closed flat.

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth fell to 1.0x from the 1.3x recorded previously as 13 stocks gained against the 12 that declined.