Market Gains 0.15% as Investors ‘Hunt’ FCMB, Other Banking Stocks

By Dipo Olowookere

The equity market rebounded by 0.15 per cent on Tuesday after investors showed keen interest in banking stocks, especially FCMB, GT HoldCo, Zenith Bank and others.

Investors in the ‘equity forest’ were hunting for FCMB and this ticker closed as the most active with the sale of 40.7 million units valued at N133.7 million.

Custodian Investment transacted 15.8 million units valued at N95.7 million, GT HoldCo exchanged 13.4 million units worth N401.2 million, Zenith Bank traded 11.2 million units valued at N265.3 million, while Jaiz Bank sold 10.7 million units for N5.9 million.

At the close of business for the day, a total of 229.0 million stocks worth N2.7 billion were transacted by investors in 3,678 deals compared with the 163.5 million stocks worth N3.4 billion transacted in 3,562 deals on Monday.

This signified that the volume of shares and the number of deals executed by market participants appreciated by 40.07 per cent and 3.26 per cent respectively, while the value of the transactions went down by 20.56 per cent.

In terms of the performance of the major sectors of the bourse, only the energy sector closed lower and it was by 0.86 per cent, while the industrial goods index closed flat.

The insurance counter appreciated by 2.22 per cent, the consumer goods space improved by 0.29 per cent, while the banking sector closed 0.25 per cent higher.

Business Post reports that when trading activities were stopped for the session, the All-Share Index (ASI) improved by 55.50 points to 37,640.75 points from 37,585.25 points, while the market capitalisation increased by N29 billion to N19.622 trillion from N19.593 trillion.

The market breadth was positive yesterday with 13 price losers and 28 price gainers led by Linkage Assurance and Ikeja Hotel, which gained 10.00 per cent each to finish at 77 kobo and N1.21 respectively.

Cadbury Nigeria appreciated by 9.62 per cent to trade at N8.55, Honeywell Flour rose by 9.46 per cent to sell for N1.62, while Consolidated Hallmark Insurance gained 8.62 per cent to quote at 63 kobo.

The losers’ chart was led by Jaiz Bank, which fell by 5.17 per cent to sell at 55 kobo and was deputised by Veritas Kapital, which went down by 4.00 per cent to trade at 24 kobo.

Unity Bank depreciated by 3.64 per cent to close at 53 kobo, PZ Cussons declined by 3.42 per cent to quote at N5.65, while Flour Mills decreased by 2.52 per cent to end at N29.05.