Access Bank, GTBank Stocks Attract Investors as Market Rises 1.09%

By Dipo Olowookere

Shares of Access Bank, GTBank were among the most attractive at the market on Tuesday, May 19, 2020 and investors did not hesitate to add them to their portfolios.

During the session, Access Bank emerged the most traded equity, trading 80.7 million units valued at N545.8 million, while GTBank followed with 41.9 million units worth N972.0 million.

Zenith Bank transacted 39.8 million shares for N628.9 million, FBN Holdings traded 33.9 million stocks worth N169.3 million, while LASACO Assurance exchanged 19.8 million equities valued at N4.6 million.

At the close of transactions, a total of 339.8 million stocks worth N3.9 billion exchanged hands on Tuesday in 4,784 deals compared with the 331.0 million shares valued at N2.9 billion traded in 5,544 deals on Monday.

This indicated that while the volume and value of transactions increased by 2.65 percent and 33.86 percent respectively yesterday, the number of deals executed by traders decreased by 13.71 percent.

Business Post reports that the huge interest in stocks strengthened the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) by 1.09 percent on Monday.

This uplifted the All-Share Index (ASI) by 261.12 points to 24,202.87 points from 23,941.75 points, while the market capitalisation grew by N136 billion to N12.613 trillion from N12.477 trillion.

It was observed that the banking index was the highest gainer yesterday, rising by 2.08 percent. The industrial index grew by 0.78 percent, the insurance counter increased by 0.41 percent, the consumer goods sector appreciated by 0.33 percent, while the energy space rose by 0.24 percent.

The market breadth was positive yesterday by 3.6x as there were 29 price advancers as against the 8 price decliners.

Okomu Oil was the highest price riser, chalking up N5.85 to sell at N64.40 per share, while Dangote Cement grew by N4 to trade at N147.50 per unit.

Presco appreciated by N1.45 to quote at N41.50 per share, Unilever Nigeria gained N1.35 to sell at N15.05 per unit, while GTBank grew by 55 kobo to close at N23.30 per share.

On the losers’ table, International Breweries dominated with a 15 kobo loss to sell at N4.85 per share, while NAHCO lost 11 kobo to trade at N2.33 per share.

Lafarge Africa depreciated by 5 kobo to quote at N11.30 per unit, LASACO Assurance declined by 2 kobo to finish at 23 kobo per share, while WAPIC Insurance decreased by 1 kobo to settle at 29 kobo to per share.