Nigerian Stocks on Steroid, Gain 3.54% to Hit 8-Month High

By Dipo Olowookere

The nation’s stock market reached a level it last hit about eight months ago with a 3.54 percent growth on Wednesday, January 8, 2020.

Since the beginning of this year, Nigerian stocks have been acting like they are on steroid, maintaining positive trajectory as a result of renewed buying interests from investors, who are being pissed off by rates in the fixed income market.

Last week, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) offered treasury bills to subscribers at 3.5 percent and with inflation at nearly 11.90 percent, investors are looking elsewhere to put their money and the equity market provides such option.

At the midweek session, the All-Share Index (ASI) of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) appreciated by 975.55 points to close at 28,562.48 points against the previous close of 27,586.93 points, while the market capitalisation increased by N471 billion to close at N13.787 trillion in contrast to N13.316 trillion it ended on Tuesday.

The bullish performance of the market was supported by gains printed by Dangote Cement, which added N14 to its share price to settle at N164 per unit, while Presco gained N3.85 to finish at N52 per share.

Okomu Oil rose by N3.50 to end at N60 per unit, Stanbic IBTC appreciated by N2.50 to close at N42.50 per unit, while Julius Berger grew by N1.95 to finish at N21.85 per share.

On the flip side, Total Nigeria recorded a N3.90 slip to settle at N107 per share, while Unilever Nigeria went down by 40 kobo to close at N19.60 per unit.

UPDC Reit fell by 40 kobo to finish at N4.05 per unit, UAC Prop depreciated by 8 kobo to close at N1 per share, while Tripple G lost 6 kobo to trade at 58 kobo per unit.

For the first time this week, both the volume and value of transactions increased at the same time, with the volume rising by 66.18 percent to 741.8 million from 446.4 million, and the value jumping by 58.36 percent to N9.2 billion from N5.8 billion.

UBA was the most active stock yesterday, trading 156.0 million shares worth N1.4 billion, while Zenith Bank followed with 86.1 million equities valued at N1.9 billion.

Access Bank sold 82.4 million stocks for N963.7 million, FBN Holdings transacted 69.4 million units worth N524.6 million, while Transcorp exchanged 62.9 million shares valued at N67.6 million.