Impressive half year earnings results from TOTAL (1,601 per cent growth in Profit Adter Tax (PAT)) and UNILEVER (238 per cent increase in PAT) buoyed performance in the domestic equities market, with the benchmark index recording gains on all three trading sessions for this week.
The result is that market capitalisation increased by N375.5 billion in value to close at N20.1 trillion.
Consequently, the All Share Index (ASI) rose by 1.9 per cent week-on-week )w/w) to settle at 38,667.9 points while YTD loss improved to -4.0 per cent.
Activity level was mixed as average volume rose by 46.4 per cent to 295.3 million units while average value traded fell by 20.7 per cent to N1.7 billion. The top traded stocks by volume were STERLNBANK (105.0m units), FIDELITYBK (70.6m units), and ZENITH (62.2m units) while ZENITH (N1.5 billion), DANGCEM (N338.0 million), and NESTLE (N304.5 million) were the top traded stocks by value.
Performance across sectors under our coverage was bullish as four indices advanced, 1 index lost while the AFR-ICT index closed flat for the week. Leading the gainers are the Oil & Gas and Industrial Goods indices, up 7.5 per cent and 4.1 per cent w/w respectively on the back of buying interest in TOTAL (+21.0 per cent), OANDO (+20.7 per cent), CUTIX (+32.5 per cent), and DANGCEM (+7.8 per cent). In the same vein, the Consumer Goods and Banking indices gained 0.6 per cent and 0.4 per cent w/w respectively due to price appreciation in UNILEVER (+9.6 per cent), GUINNESS (+9.1 per cent), WEMABANK (+11.3 per cent), and FBNH (+2.7 per cent).
