The surge in the equity market triggered a Circuit Breaker for the first time since 2016 as the All-share Index soared past the 5% benchmark to 5.08% on Thursday during the intraday trading. The result was a suspension of trading for 30 minutes. However, investors were not deterred as the index gained an additional 1.15% upon trading resumption.
Read more: Breaking: Trading suspended on the Nigerian Stock Exchange as the market gains over 5%
Investors witnessed the highest single-day gain in five years as the ASI rose a total of 6.23% with the market capitalization soaring by over N1.1 trillion to all time high of N18.47 trillion.
YTD return surged to 31.6% with the ASI settling at 35,342.46.
Investors’ sentiment measured by market breadth was strong at 8.13x as 65 stocks advanced while only 8 declined.
9 stocks gained exactly 10% including AIRTELAFRI, BUACEMENT, CADBURY, JBERGER, PRESCO.
32 stocks gained between 8% to 9.99% including ZENITHBANK (+9.96%), WAPCO (+9.86%), UBN (+9.84%), DANSUGAR (+9.77%), UNILEVER (+9.76%), FBNH (+9.09%), DANGCEM (+8.11%).
16 stocks gained between 5% to 7.99% including FIDELITYBK (+7.72%), ACCESS (+7.53%), UBA (+7.14%), CONOIL (+6.72%), FLOURMILL (+6.14%), GUARANTY (+6.11%), GUINNESS (+5.26%).
8 stocks gained below 5% including NESTLE (+3.57%).
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Activity level
The activity level strengthened in line with the stellar performance seen in the market. The volume and value of transactions rose by 39.0% and 92.0% respectively as 1.2 billion shares valued at N17.4 billion exchanged hands in 10,704 deals.
The top five traded stocks by volume are banking stocks. The activity level was led by ZENITHBANK in both volume and value of traded equities with 161.4 million units of shares worth N4.46 billion traded in 1,345 deals.
In terms of volume ZENITHBANK was followed by FBNH (121.5 million units worth N1.01 billion), ACCESS (100.8 million units worth N992.77 billion, the remaining two are UBA and FIDELITYBK.
In terms of value, it was followed by MTNN (17.01 million units worth N2.74 billion), GUARANTY (49.67 billion units worth N1.85 billion). Others are FBNH, ACCESS, and UBA.
The five indices under our watch reflected the broader upward trend of the market with the highest gain posted by the Industrial Goods Index (+8.65%), followed by the Banking Index (+7.94%), Consumer Goods Index (+5.81%), Insurance Index (+4.78%) and the Oil and Gas Index (+1.98%).
The top five gainers with closing prices are:
- AIRTELAFRI gained 10% to close at N451.20
- BUACEMENT gained 10% to close at N51.15
- CADBURY gained 10% to close at N11.00
- CILEASING gained 10% to close at N4.51
- CUTIX gained 10% to close at N2.09
The top five losers with closing prices are:
- GSPECPLC lost 9.89% to close at N4.19
- ETERNA lost 9.86% to close at N4.57
- MAYBAKER lost 9.72% to close at N3.25
- MORISON lost 9.26% to close at N0.49%
- UNIONDAC lost 7.69% to close at N0.24
The intensified buying interest in stocks can be attributed to a lack of attractive alternatives in the fixed income market due to low rates. Portfolio investors are rearranging their portfolios in line with record low rates Treasury Bill in both primary and secondary markets.
Going forward we anticipate the upward trend of the market to persist amid profit-taking activities, barring any changes in the currents rates.
By; Ifunanya Ikueze
