Nigerian equity market on Thursday extended its gains to four consecutive days and five straight trading sessions in a row, with the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All-Share Index rising by 0.20% to close at 25,511.02 with increased activity level.
Investors gained N26.621 billion as the market capitalization rose to N13.309 trillion due to gains in high Cap. stocks like MTNN (+0.51%), GUARANTY (+0.19%), UBA (+0.78%), ZENITH (+1.47%), UACN (+4.20%) among others.
Zenith Bank Plc and Fidelity Bank Plc released H1 2020 financial statements after trading hours on Thursday.
Both banks recorded growth in profit after tax, with ZENITH Board of Directors proposing an interim dividend of N0.30 per 50kobo ordinary share.
- Read more; Zenith Bank Plc declares 30 kobo interim dividend, reports N103.826 billion Profit in H1 2020
- Guaranty Trust Bank makes N94.271 billion profit in H1 2020, declares 30kobo interim dividend
Activity level
The activity level improved on Thursday from Wednesday figures, with volume and value of traded shares rising by 28% and 17% respectively, although it is significantly short of Tuesday levels.
Total of 232.416 million shares worth N1.315 billion exchanged hands in 3,377 deals on Thursday, an increase from 181.320 million shares worth N1.122 billion which were traded in 3,408 deals on Wednesday.
TRANSCORP remained the most traded stock by volume with 70.616 million shares valued at N40.062 million exchanging hands in 124 deals.
Following TRANSCORP in volume are;
- ZENITH – 25.491 million shares worth N435.192 million traded in 440 deals, and
- LASACO– 17.103 million shares worth N4.464 million traded in 37 deals.
In terms of value, ZENITH also maintained the lead, it is also followed by MTNN and GUARANTY same as Wednesday;
- MTNN – 1.595 million shares worth N189.153 million traded in 86 deals
- GUARANTY – 6.498 million shares worth N166.833 million traded in 270 deals.
Performance of Indices under our watch
Three indices under our watch appreciated while two closed flat.
The Banking Index recorded the third day of gain in a row with 0.46% increase to close at 297.32 due to GUARANTY (+0.19%), UBA (+0.78%), ZENITH (+1.47%).
The Insurance Index rose by 0.50% to close at 131.88 following gains in LINKASSURE (+7.69%), WAPIC (6.06%) among others.
Consumer Goods index gained for the third straight days. The index rose by 0.02% to close at 433.11, whereas the Industrial Index and the Oil and Gas Index closed flat at 1,124.17 and 190.71 respectively.
Investor sentiment
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (gain/loss ratio) strengthened to 3.16x from 1.64x which was recorded on Wednesday.
19 stocks advanced on Thursday, slightly higher than 18 the previous day while 6 declined, significantly lower than 11 on Wednesday.
The top five gainers by percentage and closing prices are;
- UAC-PROP rose by 8.33% to close at N0.91
- LINKASSURE rose by 7.69% to close at N0.42
- ROYALEX rose by 6.45% to close at N0.33
- WAPIC rose by 6.06% to close at N0.35
- VITAFOAM rose by 5.09% to close at N5.78
The top five decliners by percentage are;
- NEIMETH lost 6.50% to close at N1.87
- AICCO lost 5.26% to close at N0.90
- STERLNBANK lost 4.80% to close at N1.19
- LASACO lost 3.85% to close at N0.25
- TRANSCORP lost 1.69% to close at N0.58
Analyst’s view
We expect the market performance to be driven by a mixture of bargain hunting and profit-taking, while the activity level remains subdued.
Written by;
Ifunanya Ikueze