NSE records positive start as stocks gain ₦69.8 billion

THE Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, records positive start into the week as stocks gain N69.8 billion on Monday after bearish performance in recent past week.

Today, market observers saw a rebound in the domestic bourse as the benchmark index rose 33 basis points (bps) to 40,573.31 points.

The rally occurred due to heavy buying interest in SEPLAT (+10.0%), WAPCO (+5.1%), and GUARANTY (+1.5%).

Consequently, year to date return increased to 0.8% while market capitalisation inched higher to settle at ₦21.2 trillion.

Meanwhile, activity level waned as volume and value traded declined 47.9% and 58.3% respectively to 206.2 million units and ₦2.2 billion.

The most traded stocks by volume were ZENITH (21.5 million units), MBENEFIT (15.0 million units) and UAC-PROP (14.8 million units).

Then, ZENITH (₦539.6 million), GUARANTY (₦382.7 million) and MTNN (₦349.8 million) led by value.

Afrinvest said performance across sectors was positive as all indices under its coverage gained save the AFR-ICT index.

Today, AFR-ICT index closed lower by 0.6% on account of sell-offs in MTNN (-1.1%).

Driving the momentum in the stock market, the Oil & Gas index led the gainers, up 5.4% due to a price uptick in SEPLAT (+10.0%).

Similarly, the Banking and Insurance indices inched higher by 1.8% and 1.4% respectively as a result of gains in  GUARANTY (+1.5%), ACCESS (+4.3%) and AIICO (+9.3%).

The Industrial and Consumer Goods indices also appreciated 35bps and 1bp respectively as WAPCO (+5.1%) and CHAMPION (+7.0%) ticked higher.

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth weakened to 2.3x from the 3.4x recorded previously as 30 stocks gained against 13 losers.

SEPLAT (+10.0%), MBENEFIT (+9.5%) and AIICO (+9.3%) were the top gainers while CONOIL (-10.0%), ROYALEX (-10.0%) and RTBRISCOE (-9.1%) were the top losers.

“We believe bargain hunting would boost the performance of the market this week”, Afrinvest said.

NSE Records Positive Start as Stocks Gain ₦69.8 Billion