Stocks up 0.56% as Market Regains Investors’ Confidence

By Dipo Olowookere

There was a renewed vigour on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Wednesday on the back of fresh bargain hunting on some fundamentally sound stocks.

This further pushed the market higher by 0.56 per cent at the midweek session, with investor sentiment closing positive as 18 equities appreciated in value while 16 shares depreciated in price, indicating that the market is beginning to regain investors’ confidence.

The major driver of the bullish momentum was the consumer goods counter, which rose during the session by 0.39 per cent mainly due to gains printed by BUA Foods, Flour Mills and a few others.

However, the other four main sectors of the exchange depreciated at the close of transactions, with the banking index letting go of 0.61 per cent. The insurance space fell by 0.39 per cent, the industrial goods space dropped 0.28 per cent, while the energy counter declined by 0.19 per cent.

But when the market closed for the day, the All-Share Index (ASI) rose by 285.46 points to 51,377.21 points from 51,091.75 points, while the market capitalisation grew by N154 billion to N27.698 trillion from N27.544 trillion.

Ellah Lakes reported the biggest price growth with 10.00 per cent to sell at N4.40, Presco appreciated by 9.71 per cent to N183.00, FBN Holdings gained 9.52 per cent to quote at N9.20, Livestock Feeds chalked up 9.09 per cent to finish at N1.44, while Courteville closed 8.70 per cent higher to 50 kobo.

On the contrary, Northern Nigerian Flour Mills ended the midweek session as the heaviest price decliner as it shed 9.91 per cent to trade at N9.55, John Holt lost 9.86 per cent to end at 64 kobo, CWG depreciated by 9.09 per cent to 80 kobo, Consolidated Hallmark Insurance fell by 8.82 per cent to 62 kobo, while GlaxoSmithKline declined by 6.25 per cent to N6.00.

Oando was the most active stock at the bourse yesterday, selling 34.5 million units for N185.0 million and was trailed by FCMB, which traded 26.2 million units valued at N91.7 million. UBA transacted 26.0 million equities worth N194.1 million, Access Holdings exchanged 22.8 million shares for N216.3 million, while GTCO sold 15.8 million stocks for N332.4 million.

In all, investors bought and sold 229.4 million equities worth N3.2 billion in 4,536 deals compared with the 167.0 million equities worth N2.7 billion transacted in 4,398 deals on Tuesday, implying an increase in the trading volume, value and number of trades by 37.37 per cent, 16.68 per cent and 3.14 per cent respectively.