Stocks Gain N130bn on Renewed Investor Confidence

By Dipo Olowookere

The positive momentum at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) was maintained on Wednesday as local equities closed 1.03 percent higher.

It was the third consecutive growth the market was recording as a result of renewed bargain hunting on some bellwether stocks trading at low prices as well as the rising confidence of investor on the stock market.

The buying interest shot the All-Share Index (ASI) up by 249.36 points to 24,452.23 points from 24,202.87 points. It equally expanded the market capitalisation by N130 billion to N12.743 trillion from N12.613 trillion.

Business Post reports that the midweek trading session ended with 37 price gainers and 5 price losers, with Dangote Cement dominating the green side of the table with a price appreciation of N2.50 to settle at N150 per unit.

Zenith Bank gained 65 kobo to sell at N16.50 per share, BUA Cement appreciated by 60 kobo to trade at N32.40 per unit, GTBank expanded by 55 kobo to N23.85 per share, while Stanbic IBTC advanced by 35 kobo to trade at N32.85 per unit.

On the red side of the price movement chart, Lafarge Africa claimed the first spot with a loss of 30 kobo to quote at N11 per share.

Access Bank depreciated by 5 kobo to sell at N6.55 per unit, Unity Bank declined by 2 kobo to close at 50 kobo per share, while Wema Bank and Union Diagnostic lost 1 kobo each to settle at 57 kobo and 30 kobo per share respectively.

For the second straight trading day, all the five major sectors closed in green, with the insurance index, which closed 1.67 percent, the highest gainer.

The industrial goods space rose by 1.33 percent, the banking counter appreciated by 0.74 percent, the oil/gas sector rose by 0.12 percent, while the consumer goods index grew by 0.10 percent.

The activity chart was also green with the volume, value and number of deals rising by 25.75 percent, 34.52 percent and 6.17 percent respectively.

A total of 427.3 million shares worth N5.3 billion were traded in 5,079 deals on Wednesday compared with the 339.8 million stocks valued at N3.9 billion transacted in 4,784 deals on Tuesday.

Zenith Bank was the most traded stock at the session, selling 75.1 million units valued at N1.2 billion, while Access Bank was the next with 50.8 million units worth N329.2 million.

Guinness Nigeria traded 34.2 million shares worth N581.9 million, UBA exchanged 31.5 million equities for N206.3 million, while GTBank transacted 31.1 million stocks for N740.9 million.