The domestic stock market was mildly dominated by bullish sentiment on Wednesday as buying interest in Nestle (+3.3 percent), Stanbic (+3.1%) and MTNN (+1.1%), saw market capitalisation appreciate by N3.9 billion to settle at N20.3 trillion.
The All Share index went up by two basis points (bps) to settle at 38,774.03 points, while year to date loss remained at -3.7%.
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Trading activity improved as volume and value traded escalated 58.7% and 95.6% respectively to 356.5 million units and N4.2bn.
The most traded stocks by volume were Zenith (55m units), Access (38.4m units), and Transcorp (31.9m units) while Zenith (N1.2bn), Guaranty (N819.1m), and Nestle (N521.4m) led by value.
Across sectors, performance was bearish as four out of six indicators closed negative. The Banking index led the laggards, down 3.1% due to price depreciation in Zenith (-4.1%), Guaranty (-3.3%) and Access (-2.5%).
Similarly, the Insurance, Oil & Gas and Industrial Goods indices declined by 1.7%, 0.3% and 0.1% respectively as we saw sell-offs in Mansard (-3%), AIICO (-0.8%), Ardova (-3.7%) and Wapco (-2.3%).
Conversely, the Consumer Goods and AFR-ICT indices improved by 1.9% and 0.5% respectively on the back of buying interest in Nestle (+3.3%), Flour Mill (+6.9%), and MTNN (+1.1%).
Investor sentiment, as measured by market breadth continued to shrink to 0.4x from 0.7x recorded previously as 11 stocks advanced against 27 decliners.
JAIZ Bank (+10%), INITSPLC (+9.5%) and Royalex (+8.3%) were the top gainers while PHARMDEK (-9.5%), Sterling Bank (-9.5%) and Prestige (-8.7%) were the top decliners.
Analysts anticipate that the equities market will sustain a positive momentum in subsequent trading sessions.
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