On Tuesday, bargain hunting drove up the market capitalisation of Nigerian Exchange Limited by N102bn. This boosted the market capitalisation to N28.542tn by the end of trading. Although activity levels were mixed, with traded volume moderating by 7.91%, value traded increased by 21.25% to N6.79bn compared to Monday’s figures. United Bank for Africa led the volume chart by 94.31 million units traded, while Zenith Bank topped the value chart with 57.39m units traded in deals worth N1.40bn. As measured by market breadth, there were 26 gainers against the 19 decliners reflecting on investors’ sentiment. The year-to-date returns also appreciated from 1.88% to 2.28%.
Performance across the tracked indices was mostly bullish. Insurance and banking indices rose by 3.19% and 1.10%, respectively, due to buy interests in SOVRENINS and GTCO. On the upside, the consumer and industrial goods indices gained 0.85% and 0.06% respectively, owing to price appreciation in NB and WAPCO. However, the oil and gas index declined by 0.72% due to sell pressures in Ardova.
Leadway Pensure PFA, in its latest investment report, has projected that trading in the equities space is likely to be fuelled by interest in fundamentally viable options despite the current market dynamics. They further envisage moderation in the indices, indicating that investors are likely to opt for risk-free assets.
