Jan 4 (Lagos) - The domestic bourse ended the first trading session of the year deep in the green (up by 218bps), extending last week's bullish performance to close at 41,147.39. With no major declines in most mid/large cap stocks, the index benefited from gains in
Also, void of any significant crosses, activity levels for the day saw a sharp decline, as the total volume and value traded tumbled 70.18% and 86.04% respectively. The most traded stocks by value were, ZENITHBANK,
WAPCO and GUARANTY, as trades in the three tickers accounted for 45.45% of the total turnover. Likewise, investors' sentiment as measured by the market breadth closed in the green at 16.0x as a total of 32 stocks settled higher while just 2 stocks closed south.
What will shape the market tomorrow?
With most fundamental factors (such as low yields environment in the fixed income market as well as better dividend yields in fundamentally sound stocks in the equity market) remaining the same, the Nigerian equity market extended last year's bullish performance into the new year, amidst bargain hunting activities across sectors. We expect no deviation from this bullish performance tomorrow, though the possibility of profit taking on recent gains cannot be overruled.
Stocks to Watch
On the Bid Cart: The small cap stocks topped the gainers table for the day, as counters such as HONYFLOUR,
TRANSCORP and
SOVRENINS ended the first session at their intra-day maximum prices of N 1.32, N 0.99 and N 0.22 respectively (10.00% above their opening prices).
On the Offer Cart: In spite of today's bullishness,
FCMB opened the year on a bearish note, recording a loss of 601bps to close at N 3.13. The counter traded about 19.67mn units with most of the trades occurring at the offer side.