NSE Records ₦124.9 Billion Gain on Sustained Buying Interest
The Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, records ₦124.9 billion gain on sustained buying interest in some highly capitalised stocks on Thursday.
At the close of trade, gains in banking stocks -STANBIC (+5.9%), ZENITH (+3.0%) and GUARANTY (+2.4%) – pushed the NSE-ASI index higher by 57 basis points (bps) to close at 42,169.41 points.
Consequently, year to date return improved to 4.7% while market capitalisation advanced ₦124.9 billion to settle at ₦22.1 trillion.
Activity level was mixed as volume traded rose 2.2% to 555.3 million units but value traded dipped 21.3% to ₦5.8 billion.
The most traded stocks by volume were TRANSCORP (76.2 million units), UBN (75.9 million units) and ZENITH (35.2 million units).
Market data shows that ZENITH (₦936.8 million), WAPCO (₦726.7 million) and GUARANTY (₦708.7 million) led by value.
Afrinvest said performance across sectors under its coverage was mixed as 3 indicators advanced, 2 lost and the AFR-ICT index closed flat.
The Banking index led the gainers, up 2.1% following buying interest in STANBIC (+5.9%), ZENITH (+3.0%) and GUARANTY (+2.4%).
Similarly, price uptick in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+2.4%), DANGSUGAR (+1.2%) and WAPCO (+2.7%) pushed the Consumer and Industrial Goods indices higher by 0.9% and 0.2% respectively.
Conversely, the Oil & Gas and Insurance indices declined 1.8% and 0.6% respectively due to sell-offs in MOBIL (-8.6%), ARDOVA (-2.8%), NEM (-7.6%) and AFRINSUR (-7.7%).
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth weakened to 1.2x from the 1.7x recorded previously as 27 stocks gained against 22 losers.
PORTPAINT (+10.0%), JBERGER (+10.0%) and NPFMCRFBK (+9.7%) were the top gainers.
ACADEMY (-10.0%), SOVERNINS (-9.7%) and COURTVILLE (-9.1%) were the top losers.
“We anticipate that the market would end the week on a positive note”, Afrinvest said.
Bond Market Investors Raise Position on Short-term Instruments
NSE Records ₦124.9 Billion Gain on Sustained Buying Interest
