By Dipo Olowookere
The equity market rebounded on Wednesday following bargain hunting in some value stocks which depreciated on Tuesday.
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) appreciated by 0.66 percent during the midweek session, thanks to 19 equities. Unlike the previous session, only four stocks closed negative yesterday.
These shares were Guinness Nigeria, which lost N1.30 to settle at N19 per unit. SAHCO depreciated by 16 kobo to sell at N1.80 per share, Caverton fell by 10 kobo to N2.25 per unit, while Union Diagnostic declined by 2 kobo to 29 kobo per share.
Lafarge Africa was the best performing stock at the market yesterday, gaining N1 to settle at N11.35 per share, Zenith Bank garnered 70 kobo to trade at N13.75 per unit, BUA Cement gained 30 kobo to quote at N34.85 per share, PZ Cussons rose by 25 kobo to N4.25 per share, while GTBank garnered 25 kobo to finish at N18.60 per share.
Business Post reports that the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 150.38 points to 22,780.30 points from 22,629.92 points, while the market capitalisation appreciated by N78 billion to N11.872 trillion from N11.794 trillion.
With the exception of the consumer goods index, which depreciated by 0.12 percent, every other key sector ended in green.
The banking index rose by 2.76 percent, the insurance counter grew by 2.01 percent, the industrial goods space appreciated by 1.38 percent, while the oil and gas sector moved up by 0.22 percent.
Despite the growth achieved yesterday, the activity level was weak as the volume of stocks traded reduced by 25.61 percent to 186.2 million units from 250.3 million units.
In the same vein, the value of shares traded by investors went down by 20.32 percent to N1.9 billion from N2.3 billion, while the number of deals dropped 29.34 percent to 3,446 from 4,877.
As earlier stated, investors were attracted to the cheap prices some stocks were sold at the market. This made bargain hunters to focus on Zenith Bank, which traded 31.0 million units of its stocks worth N420.5 million, emerging the most active at the midweek session.
FBN Holdings transacted 30.7 million units valued at N130.5 million, GTBank exchanged 25.8 million shares for N486.8 million, UBA traded 20.0 million stocks worth N115.5 million, while Lafarge Africa traded 17.1 million units valued at N192.5 million.
