Just as they did on Tuesday; Airtel Africa, MTN Nigeria and Lafarge Africa facilitated the advancement of the Nigerian Stock Exchange All-Share Index (NSE ASI), which gained 1.21% on Tuesday, they did the same on Wednesday at the NSE ASI gained 0.83% to close at 41,930.73 points.
Airtel Africa (NSE Ticker: AIRTELAFRI), MTN Nigeria (NSE Ticker: MTNN), and Lafarge Africa (NSE Ticker: WAPCO) followed their +7.6%, +0.5% and +3.8% gains on Tuesday with +1.1%, +2.4% and +7.3% gains on Wednesday.
The market capitalization increased by 0.83%, adding N180.883 billion to close the day at N21.934 trillion.
Insurance Stocks had reversed their downwards spiral on Tuesday, as the Index appreciated by +0.40%. They followed it up with a better performance on Wednesday, advancing by 1.54%.
Champion Breweries Plc (NSE ticker: CHAMPION), the sole remaining highflyer in our tracking list continued to match forward, recording another maximum allowable gain at the end of the day’s trading session; +9.79%.
Activity level
The activity level; a measure of volume and value of shares traded, improved as the volume of shares traded increased by 16.18% and the value of the shares traded also increased by 31.55%.
In Wednesday’s trading session, 543.597 units of shares valued at N7.321 billion was traded in 6,770 deals.
The shares of TRANSCORP was the most traded by volume, with 57.238 million units of shares exchanging hands with N61016 million valuation.
The shares JAPAULGOLD and ZENITHBANK were the second and third most traded stocks by volume, with 52.041 million and 47.161 million units of shares respectively.
AIRTELAFRI shares was the most traded stock by value, with shares valued at N1.776 billion exchanging hands in 81 deals.
ZENITHBANK and GUARANTY shares were the second and third most traded stocks by value with shares worth N1.242 billion and N0.901 billion respectively exchanging hands in a combined total of 852 deals.
Performance of Indices
All but one of the indices under our watch closed positively;
- Insurance Index advanced by 1.54% as buying interest surged across multiple insurance counters
- Industrial Goods Index advanced by 0.52% driven by gains in WAPCO (+7.27%)
- Banking Index advanced by 0.31% as FBNH (+2.70%) and UBA (+2.27%) and others recorded gains
- Consumer Goods Index advanced by 0.21% on the back of DANGSUGAR (+2.46%) and CHAMPION (+9.79%)
- Oil and Gas Index declined by 0.12% dragged down by ARDOVA (-2.44%)
Investor Sentiment
Investor Sentiment as measured by market breadth weakened slightly to 1.7x from 1.8x recorded previously as 34 stocks advanced against 20 decliners.
Top 5 gainers by percentage;
- CHIPLC gained 10.00% to close at N0.44
- GUINEAINS gained 10.00% to close at N0.22
- FIDSON gained 9.90% to close at N5.55
- CHAMPION gained 9.79% to close at N2.58
- LASACO gained by 9.76% to close at N0.45
Top 5 losers by percentage;
- SKYAVN lost 10.00% to close at N2.88
- CORNERST lost 9.72% to close at N0.65
- CAVERTON lost 9.41% to close at N1.83
- UNIVINSURE lost 8.70% to close at N0.21
- FTNCOCOA lost 8.33% to close at N0.55
Outlook
We continue to maintain our expectation that the market direction will be dictated by bargain hunters as they position ahead of the dividend season.
Nnamdi Maduakor is a Writer, Investor and Entrepreneur
