Nigerian Bourse Pops as Industrial, Banking Sector Gain
The equities market pops after a downward trend it has sustained from the beginning of the week as renewed buying interest in value stocks boosts the local bourse performance.
The improvement in the stock market performance after two selloffs was driven by gains in industrial and banking sector indexes. Stockbrokers said the bullish sentiment was driven largely by investors’ interest in Zenith Bank, Union Bank and Flour Mills of Nigeria.
Consequently, year-to-date return expanded as equities market capitalisation advanced N43 billion or 0.16 per cent to close at N26.811 trillion from N26.768 trillion on Tuesday.
Trading data showed that the year-to-date returns increased to 16.71 per cent. Also, the All-Share Index advanced by 80.03 points or 0.16 per cent to close at 49,709.46 against 47,629.43 achieved on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, there was poor buying interest as the market breadth closed negative with 10 stocks making it to the gainers’ chart as against 22 decliners. The Nigerian equities market activities ended on a bearish note as the total volume and value dipped by 3.17 per cent and 25.02 per cent, respectively.
Atlass Portfolios Limited said in a market note that about 204.16 million units valued at ₦1.64 billion were transacted in 3,643 deals. FBNH emerged as the most traded stock in terms of volume, accounting for 18.14 per cent of the total volume of trades.
The financial service boutique was followed closely by ETRANZACT (14.77%), UBA (10.11%), ACCESSCORP (9.90%), and ETERNA (6.06%) to complete the top five on the volume chart.
FBNH was as the most traded stock in value terms, with 24.18 per cent of the total value of trades on the exchange. CUTIX topped the advancers’ chart with a price appreciation of 7.50 per cent, trailed by UBN (3.45%), BUACEMENT (2.63%), FLOURMILL (1.16%), ZENITH BANK (0.46%) and six (6) others.
On the flip side, twenty-two (22) stocks depreciated, led by UPDCREIT with a price decline of 9.86 per cent to close at ₦3.2. Amidst block share purchase by its largest shareholder, ETERNA was down 4.76% while NGXGROUP shed 1.23% and UCAP 1.23%.
ACCESSCORP lost 0.58%, WEMA BANK share price fell by 0.29% and GTCO went down 0.25%.
NGX Index performance was negative, as all the three major sectors closed on a negative note led by Insurance which lost 0.97%, Oil & Gas dropped by 0.12% and Consumer Goods fell 0.11%. READ: Valuation Pops as Femi Otedola Acquires Majority Shares in FBNH
On the other hand, the Industrial Goods and Banking sectors surged by 0.96% and 0.31%, respectively, according to market data. # Nigerian Bourse Pops as Industrial, Banking Sector Gain
