Equities market positive as investors gain N42bn

At the close of trade, the local bourse closed northward as investors took positions in Dangote Cement (+0.7per cent), ETI (+7.7%) and Guaranty Trust Bank (+0.7%).

As a result, the NSE All-Share Index (ASI) rose 28bps to 28,777.96 points.

Similarly, investors gained ₦42.3 billion as market capitalisation increased to ₦15 trillion and year to date return improved to 7.2%.

Activity level strengthened as volume and value traded advanced 20.4% and 25.6% to 340.8 million units and ₦5.6bn respectively. The most traded stocks by volume were GTB (56.8m units), Zenith (47.8m units) and WAPIC (40.0m units) while GTB (₦1.7bn), Dangote Cement  (₦1.0bn) and Zenith (₦1.0bn) led by value.

Performance across sectors was bullish as 4 of 6 indices under review closed in the green.

The Banking index gained the most, up 1% due to buying interest in ETI (+7.7%), GTB (+0.7%) and UBA (+2.1%).

Similarly, the Industrial Goods and Oil & Gas indices rose 0.4% and 0.1% respectively following price upticks in Dangote Cement  (+0.7%) and Oando (+0.9%).

Price appreciation in ETRANZAC (+7.7%) drove the AFR-ICT index marginally higher by 3bps. Conversely, the Insurance and Consumer Goods indices declined 1.0% and 0.3% respectively as a result of sell pressures in WAPIC (-7.5%), CHIPLC (-8.8%), NASCON (-8.4%) and INTBREW (-4.6%).

Investor sentiment, as measured by market breadth, declined to 1.8x from the 3.3x recorded previously as 27 stocks gained against the 15 that declined.

On the part of Corporate actions, AIRTEL Africa Plc released its Unaudited H1:2021 Result which revealed that revenue rose 10.7% y/y to $1.8bn from $1.6bn in H1:2020 while profit after tax declined 36.6% to $145.0m from $228.0m in H1:2020.

Similarly, Stanbic IBTC Plc Unaudited Q3:2020 Result showed that Gross earnings rose 4.0% y/y to ₦183.3bn from ₦176.2bn in Q3:2019 while profit after tax advanced 19.1% to ₦66.2bn from ₦55.6bn in Q3:2019.

Lafarge Africa Plc Unaudited Q3:2020 Result indicates that revenue rose 10.3% y/y to ₦179.9bn from ₦163.1bn in Q3:2019 while profit after tax advanced 37.1% to ₦28.2bn from ₦20.6bn in Q3:2019.