The local bourse, on Wednesday, bucked bearish trend observed in the last three trading sessions as buy interest in DANGCEM (+0.7%), GUARANTY (+1.4%), UBA (+0.8%) and ACCESS (+0.8%) drove the benchmark index 5bps northwards to settle at 25,460.45 points.
Accordingly, market capitalization improved by N4.8bn to settle at N8.8tn while YTD return steadied at –5.3%.
Activity level was mixed as volume surged 67.9% to 347.8m units while value traded waned 10.3% to N1.4m in 2,934 deals.
Performance across sectors was mixed as 3 sectors gained while 2 declined. Although DANGCEM (+0.7%) propelled the broader index, the Industrial Goods index was surprisingly dragged by WAPCO (-5.9%) while the loss in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-0.7%) weighed on Consumer Goods Index (-0.3%). The Banking index appreciated 0.7% as a result of gains in GUARANTY (+1.4%) and UBA (+0.8%). Likewise, the Insurance index improved by 0.2% owing to gains in AIICO (+3.5%). Price appreciation in OANDO (+0.6%) drove the Oil & Gas index 4bps higher.
Market breadth (advancers/decliners ratio) improved slightly, settling at 0.8x (from 0.6x yesterday) as 11 stocks appreciated against a total of 13 decliners.
Top gainers were NEIMETH (+4.9%), AIRSERVICE (+4.6%) and VITAFOAM (+4.5%) while WAPCO (-5.9%), AGLEVENT (-4.9%) and UAC-PROP (-4.2%) led laggards.
The day’s market performance was largely driven by interest in market bellwethers following three consecutive days of decline.
Adedapo Adesanya