Today, the last day of trading in 2019, the equities market posted a bullish performance as buying interest in SEPLAT (+10.0%), STANBIC (+5.1%) and WAPCO (+9.3%) pulled the All-Share Index (ASI) higher by 0.9% to close at 26,842.07 points. Consequently, YTD return moderated to -14.6% while market capitalisation increased by N112.4bn to N13.0tn. Activity level was mixed as volume traded rose 175.2% to 1.1bn units while value traded fell by 23.5% to N5.5bn. The top traded stocks by volume were ACCESS (47.3m units), UBA (37.4m units) and ZENITH (29.8m units) while DANGCEM (N2.4bn), ZENITHBANK (N554.0m) and ACCESS (N471.4m) were the top traded stocks by value.
In line with market performance, sector performance was broadly positive save the Consumer Goods index which closed negative, down 0.3%, on the back of losses in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-1.3%) and DANGSUGAR (-1.5%). The Oil & Gas index led gainers, up 6.7%, following buying interest in SEPLAT (+10.0%) and OANDO (+8.4%). Similarly, the Industrial Goods and Insurance indices trailed, gaining 2.2% and 2.0% respectively, as investors positioned in WAPCO (+9.3%), DANGCEM (+0.4%), MANSARD (+10.0%) and PRESTIGE (+7.8%). Also, the Banking index closed higher by 1.4% buoyed by price appreciation in GUARANTY (+2.4%), ACCESS (+2.6%) and ZENITH (+0.5%). Lastly, the AFR-ICT index closed flat.
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) weakened to 1.8x from the 2.0x recorded yesterday as 24 stocks appreciated compared with 13 decliners. The top performers for the day were SEPLAT (+10.0%), MANSARD (+10.0%) and VITAFOAM (+10.0%) while UPDCREIT (-9.6%), CUTIX (-8.3%) and LASACO (-7.4%) declined the most. We believe the positive performance was partly driven by portfolio rebalancing activities by asset and portfolio managers.
