The Nigerian Stock Exchange equities market hit a hattrick of gains this week, as it’s benchmark index gained 0.11% to close the day at 40,341.05 points. The market capitalization gained N23.583 billion (+0.11%), rising to N21.093 trillion at the end of trading on the floor of the exchange.
The Insurance Stocks followed up their recent performance with an even bigger gain on Wednesday, advancing by 4.12%.
The extent and spread of the gains by these Insurance stocks can be seen in the gainers table; 8 Insurance stocks recorded the maximum gains possible in a single day of trading.
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Highflyer JAPAULGOLD continued its run of gains, booking another 9.48% (the maximum possible) gain in the day’s trading session to close at N1.27.
Our new highflyers matched the performance of JAPAULGOLD; all but ARDOVA recorded maximum gains, Mutual Benefit Assurance Plc (+9.52%), Regency Alliance Plc (+7.69%) and Royal Exchange Plc (+7.41%).
ARDOVA started the day well, but ended the day with a gain of N0.30 (+1.52%). Ardova Plc in a press release reported by Investogist, informed The Nigerian Stock Exchange and the investing public that it has entered into discussion to acquire Enyo Retail and Supply Limited.
Activity level
The activity level waned with the volume of shares traded decreasing by 59.86%, while the value of traded shares decreased by 12.63%.
468.146 million shares worth N6.963 billion were traded on Wednesday in 5,697 deals, 1.90% more than the number of deals recorded o Tuesday.
Zenith Bank Plc shares were the most traded by volume, as Investors/traders traded 45.772 million units of the stock. LASACO and UBA were the second and third most traded stocks by volume, with 40.724 million and 31.816 million shares respectively.
MTNN shares were the most traded by value, with shares worth N2.246 billion traded in 174 deals. ZENITHBANK and GUARANTY were the second and third most traded stocks by value, having the shares worth N1.185 billion and N592.684 million exchanging hands.
Performance of Indices
All five indices under our watch advanced on Wednesday;
- Insurance Index advanced by 4.12%, on the back of surging share prices of multiple insurance stocks, amongst them are MANSARD (+9.5%), CUSTODIAN (+2.6%) and AIICO (+2.6%)
- Oil & Gas Index advanced by 1.74%, as a result of gains in MOBIL (+9.4%)
- Consumer Goods Index advanced by 0.11%, following gains in FLOURMILL (+6.9%)
- Banking Index advanced by 0.08%, on gains by ACCESS (+1.1%) and ZENITHBANK (+0.4%)
- Industrial Goods Index also advanced by 0.08%, propped by WAPCO (+1.4%)
Investor Sentiment
Investor Sentiment as measured by market breadth increased to 1.9x from the 1.3x recorded in the preceding session as 31 stocks advanced against 16 decliners.
Top 5 gainers by percentage are;
- ACADEMY gained 10.00% to close at N0.33
- SOVRENINS gained 10.00% to close at N0.22
- VERITASKAP gained 10.00% to close at N0.22
- BOCGAS gained 9.92% to close at N12.52
- CHAMPION gained 9.80% to close at N1.12
Top 5 losers by percentage are;
- CHELLARAM lost 9.96% to close at N2.26
- LIVESTOCK lost 9.74% to close at N1.76
- CHIPLC lost 8.82% to close at N0.31
- FTNCOCOA lost 5.88% to close at N0.64
- CUTIX lost 5.00% to close at N2.09
Outlook
We expect the subsequent trading sessions in the week to be influenced by bargain hunting and Investor’s positioning for dividends ahead of the earnings season.
