Bulls Tighten Grip on NSE as Index Rises 0.74%

By Dipo Olowookere

Despite the losses recorded by the banking sector on Monday as a result of massive profit taking by investors, the nation’s stock market opened the week positive with the bulls stamping their authority.

Transactions on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed bullish yesterday for the 11th consecutive trading session, closing 0.74 percent higher to extend the year-to-date (YtD) gain to 10.40 percent.

The uptrend was largely supported by the strong performance put up by equities in the insurance (0.30 percent) and the oil/gas (0.07 percent) sectors.

However, the banking index went down by 0.70 percent, consumer goods index dropped 0.42 percent, while the industrial goods index declined by 3.17 percent.

Business Post reports that at the close of activities, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 218.19 basis points to close at 29,633.58 basis points, while the market capitalisation went up by N112 billion to settle at N15.287 trillion.

MTN Nigeria was the best performing stock at the NSE on Monday, appreciating by N11.60 to finish at N127.60 per unit, while UAC Nigeria gained 80 kobo to sell at N11.05 per share.

GlaxoSmithKline rose by 35 kobo to settle at N5.65 per unit, while UBA and Flour Mills gained 30 kobo each to close at N8.70 and N23.30 respectively.

On the flip side, Presco ended the trading session as the worst performing stock, losing N4.65 to close at N52.25 per share, while BUA Cement went down by N2 to finish at N39 per unit.

Seplat depreciated by N1.50 to end at N588 per unit, Cadbury Nigeria went down by N1.05 to close at N9.50 per share, while Unilever Nigeria declined by N1 to trade at N18 per unit.

The market boomed yesterday as investors mopped up some value stocks ahead of the earnings season within the next two months. This resulted in the 23.96 percent rise in the volume of shares transacted in the session to 348.2 million units from 280.9 million units recorded last Friday.

In the same vein, the value of the trades on Monday increased by 77.51 percent to N8.6 billion from N4.8 billion at the previous trading day.

Access Bank was the most traded stock at the market, selling 63.7 million units worth N682.5 million, while UBA transacted 40.6 million shares valued at N354.2 million.

Zenith Bank exchanged 39.5 million equities for N861.2 million, UAC Nigeria traded 24.4 million shares valued at N268.7 million, while GTBank transacted 18.2 million stocks worth N573.7 million.