The bears had dominated the Nigeria’s equities market for much of Tuesday’s session, before investors’ late interest in Guaranty Trust Bank, GTBank Plc and Zenith Bank Plc kept the market largely afloat.
Specifically, the benchmark index, NSE Index rose marginally, by 0.01 percent, to close at 30,736.88 points. Against that backdrop, the Month-to-Date loss moderated slightly to 2.21 percent.
On sectoral performance, losses across the Consumer Good (-0.27 percent), Industrial (-2.45 percent), and Insurance (-0.41 percent) Indices was neutered by gains in the Banking (+0.76 percent) and Oil & Gas (+1.68 percent) Indices.
Market breadth was negative with 27 losers and 12 gainers, led by Sovereign Insurance (-8.33 percent). It was followed by Cement Company of Northern Nigeria, CCNN (-7.1 percent) and WAPIC Insurance (-4.8 percent).
On the gainers side, the top performing stocks for the day were Linkage Assurance (+9.8% percent),RED Star Express (+9.1 percent) and NAHCO (+8.4 percent).
Meanwhile, total volume and value traded declined sharply by 54.2 percent and 58.2 percent to 228.52 million units and ₦2.31 billion respectively, and exchanged in 3,198 deals.
Analysts at a Lagos based investment firm, Cordros Capital said: “Our outlook for equities in the near-to-medium term remains conservative, in the absence of a near term positive catalyst and amidst brewing political concerns.
Analysts at Afriinvest said: “Despite the slightly positive performance on Tuesday, we expect to see profit taking in subsequent sessions.”