Investors in the stock market earned about N249 billion last weekend after most of the listed companies started declaring strong earnings results for the third quarter of 2020.
Records from the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) show that gains were recorded on three of the five trading sessions which pushed the benchmark index higher by 1.6 per cent w/w to 31,016.17 points.
Similarly, investors gained N249 billion as market capitalisation rose to N16.2 trillion, while year-to-date (YTD) return improved to 15.6 per cent.
Activity level fell as average volume and value traded declined 13.4 per cent and 23.3 per cent to 413.4 million units and N4.5bn respectively.
The most traded stocks by volume were Access (243.9m units), Zenith (146.0m units) and FBNH (128.3m units), while Zenith (N3.2bn), BUA Cement (N2.3bn) and Access (N2.0bn) led by value.
Performance across sectors under our coverage was mixed as three indices gained, two declined and the AFR-ICT index closed flat w/w.
The industrial goods and banking indices led the gainers, up 2.9 per cent and 2.5 per cent w/w respectively following price appreciation in UBA (+5.8 per cent), FBNH (+5.4 per cent) and Dangote Cement (+9.1 per cent).
Similarly, the consumer goods index gained 0.6 per cent w/w due to buying interest in Dangote Sugar (+19.6 per cent) and PZ (+7.9 per cent).
On the other hand, the oil and gas and insurance indices lost 0.8 per cent and 1.3 per cent w/w respectively owing to sell-offs in Mobil (-3.1 per cent), OANDO (-1.8 per cent), MANSARD (-9.1 per cent) and LINKASSURE (-8.9 per cent).
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth weakened to 1.6x from 10.2x last week as 38 stocks gained against the 24 that declined.
LIVESTOCK (+30.9 per cent), TRANSCORP (+19.7 per cent) and Dangote Sugar (+19.6 per cent) led the top gainers, while INTBREW (-11.8 per cent), MANSARD (-9.1 per cent) and LINKASSURE (-8.9 per cent) led the decliners.
Analysts at Afrinvest said, “We expect the trend in corporate earnings releases to direct market performance in the coming week.”
– Daily Trust