Stock Market Gains N52bn as Buhari Floors Atiku at Tribunal

By Dipo Olowookere

The nation’s stock market closed 0.39 percent higher on Wednesday after suffering two consecutive losses this week as a result of profit taking activities by investors.

During yesterday’s session, the bulls chased out the bears from the market as investors kept an eye on proceedings at the election tribunal giving its ruling on the disputes from the February 2019 presidential election between President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and his challenger, Mr Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

First feelers from the tribunal in Abuja gave clear indications that the President would retain his seat and this improved the level of confidence of investors, triggering buying pressure at the market.

Though the final judgement did not come before the close of transactions at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), earlier rulings dismissing some of the appeals of Mr Atiku on the legitimacy of Mr Buhari and others brought fresh air to the stock market.

At the end of the day, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 105.95 points to settle at 27,153.53 basis points from 27,047.58 basis points in the last session, while the market capitalization appreciated by N51.6 billion to finish at N13.210 trillion against N13.158 trillion on Tuesday.

But Business Post observed that despite the market closing bullish yesterday, the volume, value and number of deals executed depreciated by 41.92 percent, 70.18 percent and 5.70 percent respectively.

A total of 211.5 million shares worth N1.5 billion were exchanged by investors in 4,365 deals in the mid-week session compared with the 364.2 million equities valued at N4.9 billion transacted in 4,629 deals in the previous trading session.

Courtville recorded the highest volume of sales yesterday, closing with a turnover of 35.2 million units of its shares traded at N7.7 million.

It was followed by Sterling Bank, which traded 34.7 million shares worth N78.1 million, and Access Bank, which transacted 30 million equities valued at N208.4 million.

Furthermore, Transcorp exchanged 15.9 million units of its stocks worth N16.1 million during the trading day, while UBA sold 12.5 million shares worth N77.5 million.

An analysis of the price movement chart showed that yesterday, Nestle Nigeria topped the gainers’ table after a price appreciation of N40 to close at N1120 per unit.

Seplat trailed with a price growth of N24 to finish at N450 per share, CCNN gained 25 kobo to settle at N16.50k per share, May & Baker improved its share value by 19 kobo to end at N2.09k per unit, while FCMB garnered 9 kobo to close at N1.64k each.

At the other side, Guinness Nigeria closed as the day’s heaviest price loser after depreciating by 30 kobo to trade at N37 per share, while Stanbic IBTC went down by 25 kobo to finish at N35.75k per share.

Flour Mills also declined by 25 kobo to close at N13.25k per share, Dangote Flour shed 15 kobo to settle at N22.10k per unit, while UAC Nigeria depleted by 15 kobo to trade at N6.05k per share.

For the sectoral performance, only the insurance sector closed negative on Wednesday after going down by 1.25 percent.

The energy sector was the day’s highest gainer with 2.82 percent growth, the consumer goods index appreciated by 1.60 percent, banking stocks rose by 0.35 percent, while industrial sector appreciated by 0.16 percent.