Investors respond to third-quarter earnings as the market closed on a significantly bullish note last week. With gains in all the 4 trading days in the week under review, the All Share Index (ASI) advanced by 6.39 bps WoW to 28,697 as market capitalization gained N958.41bn to settle at N15.96 trillion. This pulls the year-to-date performance to a record +13.74%.
Market breadth, a measure of Investors’ sentiment advanced from 0.8x to 11.33x as 68 stocks advanced while only 6 stocks declined last week. PORTPAINT (+32.20%), FCMB (+28.28%) and TRIPPLEG (+27.78%) were the top market gainers while MORISON (-10.00%), PRESTIGE (-10.00%) and CUTIX (-8.95%) top the losers table.
Market activity level improved as the volume and value of transactions advanced by 26.84% and 20.04% to 1.5bn units and N19.668bn respectively. Trading in the shares of FBNH, ZENITH and ACCESS accounted for 576.514 million shares worth N6.791 billion in 4,652 deals, contributing 30.19% and 28.76% to the total equity turnover volume and value in the market last week respectively.
We expect sustenance of the bullish sentiment this week as more companies roll out their third-quarter results. However, profit-taking might set in towards the end of the week coupled with the spillover of negative sentiments from the global markets.
