NGX Edges Higher as Investors Position in Telcos, Banking Stocks
The Nigerian Exchange, NGX, edged higher on Wednesday due to buying interest in telecom, banking stocks as the headline inflation rate falls further. Today, the National Bureau of Statistics said Nigeria’s inflation rate declined for the fifth month to 17.01 per cent.
The slowdown could potentially drive the fixed income market cold, and quiet as investors continue to earn inflation-exposed returns amidst low securities issuance and the deliberate effort of the debt management office to reduce debt costs on the nation’s debt.
Sustaining the previous day’s positive sentiment, stock market performance indicators edged higher, expanded by 0.12 per cent while year to date losses moderated. Stocks have been volatile, however, sustained by interim dividends while yields on instruments in the fixed income market slope down.
The improvement recorded in market indices was impacted by price appreciation in MTNN and some other medium capitalized stocks, despite the decline in three major indices of the market, according to Atlass Portfolios.
Market data shows that the All-Share Index rose by 47.84 basis points to close at 38,968.34. Similarly, market capitalization expanded ₦24.93 billion, representing a growth of 0.12 per cent to close at ₦20.30 trillion.
In spite of the positive momentum, the market activities were mixed, as the total volume traded dipped by 38.11 per cent, while the total value traded rose by 58.27 per cent.
A total of 141.41 million units of shares valued at ₦2.97 billion were traded in 3,079 deals. Given this, UNIVINSURE led the traded stock in terms of volume, accounting for 12.72 per cent of the total volume of trades, followed by ZENITH BANK (6.87%), UCAP (6.61%), TRANSCORP (6.42%), and ACCESS (6.38%) to complete the NGX top five on the volume chart.
In the telecom segment, MTNN emerged as the most traded stock in value terms, with 34.01 per cent of the total value of trades on the exchange.
Read Also: Nigerian Treasury Bills Rate Edges Upward as Naira Gains
UPDC led the advancers’ table with price appreciation of 9.64 per cent, trailed closely by NNFM (9.59%), HONYFLOUR (3.83%), MTNN (1.45%), FBNH (1.33%), GTCO (0.74%), UCAP (0.61%) and 7 others.
On the other hand, TRANSCOHOT topped the decliners’ chart as its share price declined by 10.00 per cent to close at ₦4.5, as SEPLAT (-6.54%), STERLNBANK (-1.99%), FIDELITYBK (-1.23%), GLAXOSMITH (-0.82%) and ZENITH BANK (-0.63%) amongst others also decline in price. However, the market breadth closed negatively, recording 14 gainers and 19 losers.
NGX Edges Higher as Investors Position in Telcos, Banking Stocks
