Stock Market Rises Slightly as 22 Firms Gain

• Stock Market Rises Slightly as 22 Firms Gain

The Nigerian stock market which took a break on Wednesday from its gaining streak witnessed a rebound on Thursday as investors gained N14.83 billion.

Specifically, the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) capitalisation of equities rose to N12.102 trillion from N12.087 trillion recorded on Wednesday.

Twenty-two stocks recorded price appreciation at the end of trading while the share prices of Thirteen dipped.

The All-share index increased by 0.12 per cent from 32,413.92 basis point on Wednesday to 32,453.69 basis points on Thursday, improving the year-to-date return to 3.4 per cent.

A total of 423.379 million shares worth N3.729 billion in 4,417 deals were traded by investors on the floor of the Exchange, representing a weak activity level and a 10.1 per cent and 12.1 per cent decline in volume and value traded respectively.

Diamond Bank led the traded stocks by volume with 97.6 million units, trailed by Transcorp with 41.1 million units and Zenith Bank with 40.3 million units.

Top traded stocks by value were; Zenith Bank (N997.1 million), Guaranty Trust Bank (992.6 million) and Access Bank (263.7 million).

The top five gainers were; Associated Bus Company (10 per cent), Livestock Feed (10 per cent), Unity Bank (9.62 per cent), Unilever (6.82 per cent) and Wema Bank (6,74 per cent).

Conversely, the top five losers were; Union Bank (8.03 per cent), Oando (5.17 per cent), Dangote Flour Mills (4.57 per cent), Union Diagnostics (3.23 per cent), Clinical Services and Eterna (3.09 per cent).

Performance across sectors was highly bullish as three of five indices closed in the positive territory. Also, investors sentiment strengthened from 0.7x recorded on Wednesday to 1.7x on Thursday.22

Analysts at Afrinvest Securities Limited said, “Despite today’s positive performance, we maintain a conservative outlook for Friday’s trading session. We expect profit-taking activities in fundamentally good stocks as the market closes for the week.”