Despite bargain hunting NSE sustains bullish rally

The equities market of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) as the All-Share Index (ASI) inching 0.63 per cent higher to 40,788.68 points, following bargain hunting across major sectors.

Accordingly, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns improved to -1.72 per cent and 6.66 per cent respectively.

All sectoral indices closed in the green – Industrial Goods (+1.75%), Banking (+1.32%), Consumer Goods (+0.60%), and Insurance (+0.59%) – save for the Oil & Gas index, which posted a marginal decline of 0.02%.

The notable shares include WAPCO (+3.56%), ZENITHBANK (+1.70%), GLAXOSMITH (+8.45%), NEM (+4.76%), and ETERNA (-1.27%), respectively.

Market breadth remained positive, with 33 gainers and 18 losers, led by UNITYBNK (+9.48%) and CILEASING (-5.00%).

Volume of trades surged 732.41 per cent to 1.60 billion units – highest since February 8th – while total turnover recorded a 248.88% upturn to NGN10.91 billion – highest since March 9th.

These followed major crosses on the bourse – 320 million units of UBA at NGN11.00, and 834 million units of FCMB at NGN2.47. Total deals stood at 4,729 deals.

Analysts at Codros Capital maintain a positive outlook for the equities market in the medium to long term, amidst relatively lower prices of value stocks, which make room for bargain hunting.