Economy
Stocks Gain N134bn as Bargain Hunters Butcher Bears
By Dipo Olowookere
Transactions on the trading floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) ended bullish on Wednesday after bargain hunters dealt a huge blow on bears terrorizing the market in the past two previous sessions despite the positive news of the appointment of an economic squad by President Muhammadu Buhari and the easing of inflation to 11.02 percent in August 2019 as announced by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Tuesday.
The actions of investors in mopping up some value stocks trading at cheap prices led to the 1.00 percent appreciation printed by the market at the midweek session. This led to the market breadth closing positive with 24 price gainers led by Stanbic IBTC and 13 price losers led by Forte Oil.
In addition, the renewed buying pressure pushed the All-Share Index (ASI) up by 274.57 points to 27,681.61 points from 27,407.04 points, while the market capitalization was boosted by N133.7 billion to N13.475 trillion from N13.342 trillion.
Business Post reports that Stanbic IBTC, which topped the price risers’ chart on Wednesday a day after the company assured its stakeholders of its commitment to long-term value, appreciated by N2.45k to settle at N39.95k per share.
GTBank improved its share price by N1.30k to close at N29.80k per unit, MTN Nigeria gained N1 to finish at N140 per unit, Ecobank garnered 80 kobo to trade at N8.80k per share, while Lafarge Africa rose by 60 kobo to end at N15.30k per unit.
At the other side, Forte Oil led the decliners’ table with a loss of 35 kobo to close at N16 per share, while Champion Breweries fell by 11 kobo to settle at N1.14k per share, with Custodian Investment, FBN Holdings and UBA losing 5 kobo each to close at N5.95k, N5.40k and N6.35k respectively.
In terms of the level of transactions at the market yesterday, there was an improvement from what was recorded in the previous session.
A total of 379.5 million shares worth N5.4 billion exchanged hands in 3,923 deals compared with the 198.0 million equities valued at N2.9 billion traded in 3,830 deals in the previous session.
This indicated that the number of deals executed on Wednesday improved by 2.43 percent, while the volume of trades rose by 91.64 percent and the value of the transactions increased by 84.45 percent.
It was observed that banking stocks dominated the activity chart yesterday with GTBank emerging as the most traded equity with a turnover of 98.4 million units sold for N2.8 billion.
Access Bank transacted 40.7 million shares worth N314.5 million, FBN Holdings exchanged 40.1 million equities valued at N216.6 million, FCMB traded 20.1 million shares for N33.9 million, while Sterling Bank traded 17.6 million shares valued at N38.8 million.
The sectoral performance chart showed that the banking index rose by 2.99 percent, the industrial goods sector improved by 0.94 percent, the insurance space grew by 0.45 percent, while the consumer goods index appreciated by 0.27 percent.
However, the oil and gas index suffered a 0.19 percent decline at the trading session.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange closed flat on Wednesday, August 5, as the market witnessed weaker trading activity with only two deals executed.
In the midweek session, the volume of securities exchanged by investors dropped 99.9 per cent to 802 units from the 1.6 million units recorded on Tuesday. The value of securities further decreased by 99.6 per cent to N208,240 from the preceding session’s N47.6 million, and the number of deals significantly went down by 93.9 per cent to two deals from the 33 deals recorded a day earlier.
Great Nigeria Insurance (GNI) Plc remained the most traded stock by value on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units worth N8.4 billion, followed by Infrastructure Credit Guarantee (Infracredit) Plc with 2.3 billion units sold for N6.5 billion, and Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc with 76.9 million units transacted for N5.5 billion.
GNI Plc was also the most active stock by volume on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units exchanged for N8.4 billion, followed by Infracredit Plc with 2.3 billion units traded for N6.5 billion, and Resourcery Plc with 1.1 billion units valued at N415.7 million.
There were no price gainers or losers yesterday.
As a result, the market capitalisation stood unmoving at N2.739 trillion, while the NASD Security Index (NSI) remained unchanged at 4,563.96 points.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira slid against the US Dollar by N2.28 or 0.17 per cent in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) on Wednesday, August 5, to N1,363.85/$1 from N1,362.55/$1.
The local currency also declined against the Pound Sterling in the official market during the session by N5.97 to close at N1,837.38/£1 compared with Tuesday’s closing rate of N1,831.41/£1, and against the Euro, it crashed by N6.54 to quote at N1,575.25/€1 versus the preceding session’s N1,568.71/€1.
But at the black market, the Nigerian Naira traded flat against the greenback yesterday at N1,400/$1, and also remained unchanged at the GTBank FX desk at N1,373/$1.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says rates have narrowed to below two per cent, while the country’s external reserves have risen above $52.5 billion, reflecting the impact of its ongoing monetary and foreign exchange reforms.
CBN Governor Yemi Cardoso, represented by the Acting Director of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations, Mrs Hakama Sidi-Ali, disclosed this on Tuesday during the CBN Fair in Gombe. He noted that reforms introduced since 2023 had significantly reduced the disparity between the official FX market and the parallel market.
“The Naira continues to strengthen, with the spread between official and Bureau de Change rates now below two per cent,” he said, adding that reserves at $52.5 billion were supported by sustained inflows and renewed investor confidence in the economy.
Interbank FX transactions slid as weaker market activities dropped total Dollar volume exchanged to $75.35 million, a 51.8 per cent decline from $156.23 million in turnover quoted at the previous close.
The deals at the NFEM window also fell as data from the central bank put Wednesday’s quote at 82 from 139.
In the cryptocurrency market, major were down as global risk sentiment softened as a key world equity index slipped and chipmakers fell.
The MSCI All Country World Index snapped a five-day run to fall 0.2 per cent as chipmakers retreated on both sides of the Pacific. South Korea’s Kospi, a bellwether for the AI trade, dropped 4.4 per cent.
Ripple (XRP) depleted by 1.7 per cent to $1.05, Binance Coin (BNB) decreased by 1.0 per cent to $594.87, Cardano (ADA) depreciated by 0.9 per cent to $0.1884, TRON (TRX) shrank by 0.2 per cent to $0.3261, Solana (SOL) crumbled by 0.1 per cent to $74.00, and Dogecoin (DOGE) went down by 0.1 per cent to $0.0697.
On the flip side, Ethereum (ETH) gained 2.3 per cent to trade at $1,911.41, and Bitcoin (BTC) rose by 0.8 per cent to $64,759.28, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 apiece.
By Dipo Olowookere
The domestic stock exchange rebounded by 0.05 per cent on Wednesday on the back of renewed bargain-hunting by investors, though the level of activity waned.
After bleeding for a few days, the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited heaved a sigh of relief yesterday, as the All-Share Index (ASI) gained 109.41 points to close at 244,912.24 points compared with the previous day’s 244,802.83 points, and the market capitalisation garnered N71 billion to settle at N158.087 trillion versus Tuesday’s N158.016 trillion.
Business Post reports that despite the rebound recorded by Customs Street at midweek, the market breadth index remained negative, as there were 20 price advancers and 29 price decliners, implying bearish investor sentiment.
Linkage Assurance appreciated by 9.94 per cent to N1.77, AVA Capital rose by 9.55 per cent to N10.90, Fortis Global Insurance advanced by 7.69 per cent to N2.80, McNichols gained 7.34 per cent to finish at N5.85, and Coronation Insurance surged by 5.51 per cent to N2.49.
Conversely, Honeywell Flour depreciated by 9.94 per cent to N16.30, PZ Cussons gave up 9.94 per cent to trade at N74.75, Zichis crashed by 9.74 per cent to N20.76, Learn Africa slipped by 9.62 per cent to N9.40, and Neimeth tumbled by 8.33 per cent to N8.25.
The busiest equity was FCMB, with a turnover of 369.2 million units valued at N4.1 billion. Chams transacted 46.7 million units worth N201.8 million, First Holdco transacted 43.5 million units for N5.7 billion, Access Holdings sold 29.8 million units worth N778.0 million, and Linkage Assurance exchanged 19.6 million units valued at N33.5 million.
At the close of transactions, market participants bought and sold 824.1 million units worth N25.5 billion in 48,114 deals, in contrast to the 1.6 billion units sold for N28.7 billion in 54,160 deals a day earlier, showing a shortfall in the trading volume, value, and number of deals by 48.49 per cent, 11.15 per cent, and 11.16 per cent, respectively.
