Stocks of first three first tier banks Zenith, Guaranty Trust Bank and Access Bank energised the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Thursday, as the Nigerian Equities market moved northwards.
The market has been bearish for a sustained period, with investors losing bilions as both indices – capitalisation and index – nosedived.
But thanks to the bank stocks the narrative was different on Thursday at the trading floor, with bullish sentiment holding sway.
The All Share Index surged by 1.8 per cent to 26,843.11 points following gains in GUARANTY (+6.8%), ZENITH (+7.6%) and ACCESS (+9.6%). Consequently. The Year to Date YTD return improved to -14.6 per cent while market capitalisation rose by N236.3 billion to N13.1 trillion. Activity level was mixed as volume traded rose 2.3% to 624.8m units while value traded declined 9.8% to N10.0bn. The most active stocks by volume were ZENITH (167.9m units), ACCESS (99.3m units) and UBA (67.8m units) while ZENITH (N3.2bn), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (N1.7bn) and MTNN (N1.6bn) led by value.
Performance across sectors was impressive as 4 of 6 sectors under our coverage gained. The Banking index (+7.0%) led gainers following gains in GUARANTY (+6.8%), ZENITH (+7.6%) and ACCESS (+9.6%). The Insurance (+2.0%) and Industrial Goods (+1.2%) indices followed suit, due to buying interest in CONTINSURE (+4.4%), AIICO (+6.9%) and WAPCO (-5.7%). Also, price appreciation in DANGSUGAR (+9.5%), GUINNESS (+9.7%) and NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+0.5%) moved the Consumer Goods index 1.0% upward. Conversely, the Oil & Gas index lost 1.6% while sell-offs in MTNN (-0.1%) put the AFR-ICT index (-0.1%) in the red territory.
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) surged to 11.3x from the 0.8x recorded previously as 34 stocks gained against 3 decliners. The top gainers were EKOCORP (+9.8%), CAVERTON (+9.8%) and GUINNESS (+9.7%) while IKEJAHOTEL (-9.4%), CHAMPION (-9.1%) and MTNN (-0.1%) were the top losers. Following the marked improvement in sentiment in the equities market, we expect a mixed market performance in the short term as bulls continue to battle bears for dominance.
Market Statistics for Thursday, 14th November, 2019
Market Cap (N’bn) 13,067.1
Market Cap (US$’bn) 36.3
NSE All-Share Index 26,843.11
Daily Performance % 1.8
1 Week Performance % 2.5
YTD Performance % (14.6)
Daily Volume (Million) 624.8
Daily Value (N’bn) 10.0
Daily Value (US$’m) 27.8
Source: Afrinvest
