Aggressive bargain hunting moves triggered the NSE broad market circuit breaker for the first in history today as the trading session was halted for 30 minutes after ASI crossed the +5.00% band to activate the trigger. Upon resumption of the session, the market indicator surged further by +6.23% to close the session at 35,342.46 points. Though the bullish stance was across board, Industrial goods stocks led the charge and posted +8.65% gains on account of positive movements in Buacement (+10.00%), Wapco (+9.86%) and Dangcem (+8.11%). Also, the banking index advanced by +7.94% due to gains recorded bellwethers, Zenithbank (+9.96%), UBN (+9.84%), ETI (+9.77%), FBNH (+9.09%), Access (+7.53%), Guaranty (+6.11%) while Cadbury (+10.00%), Presco (+10.00%), Dangsugar (+9.77%), NB (+9.74%) and Nestle (+3.57%) all advanced to strengthen the consumer index by +5.81%. Other notable movers were telecommunication giants Airtelafri (+10.00%), MTNN (+1.25%), as well as Jberger (+10.00%) and Custodian (+9.89%).
Market turnover was impressive at N17.40bn ($45.60mln), buoyed by trades in Zenithbank, MTNN, Guaranty, Fbnh and Access. The NSEASI ytd return improved to +31.64%. We expect the market to witness the same sentiments in the next session, though not ruling out intermittent profit taking.
