Stock market rebounds, indices up by N47 billion

Equity transactions on the trading floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange rebounded from 12-day downtrend yesterday, as most blue-chip stocks appreciated in price, causing market capitalisation to increase by N47 billion.

Specifically, at the close of trading yesterday, the All-Share Index (ASI) gained 130.81 points, representing a growth of 0.36 per cent to close at 36,947.10 points.

Similarly, market capitalisation gained N47 billion to close at N13.383 trillion.
The growth was impacted by gains recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Nigerian Breweries, Guaranty Trust Bank, Mobil Nigeria, Zenith Bank and FBN Holdings.

Analysts attributed the equity reversal to the successive weeks of losses. While analysts at United Capital expressed optimism that investors would hunt for bargains this week. Afrinvest Securities Limited said: “Whilst we are cautiously optimistic on the sustainability of today’s market rebound, we expect bargain hunting in large cap value stocks to continue driving positive performance in the near term.”

The market breadth closed the same, recorded 21 gainers and losers. Japaul Oil recorded the highest price gain of 9.09 per cent, to close at 21 kobo per share. Custodian and Allied Insurance gained 4.92 per cent to close at N5.12, while Eterna appreciated by 4.90 per cent to close at N6.64 per share.

Guaranty Trust Bank appreciated by 4.53 per cent to close at N40.40, while Aiico Insurance went up by 3.45 per cent to close at 60 kobo per share.

On the other hand, Oando led the losers’ chart by 8.96 per cent, to close at N6.10 per share. Cadbury Nigeria followed with a decline of eight per cent, to close at N11.50, while Presco depreciated by five per cent to close at N71.25 per share.

PZ Industries was down by 4.81 per cent to close at N20.80, while Sterling Bank shed 4.69 per cent to close at N1.22 per share.

However, the total volume traded declined by 39.16 per cent to 314.43 million shares, worth N7.03 billion, and traded in 6,016 deals. Transactions in the shares of Guaranty Trust Bank topped the activity chart with 67.16 million shares valued at N2.68 billion. Sovereign Trust Insurance followed with 33.01 million shares worth N8.89 million, while FBN Holdings traded 19.6 million shares valued at N202.21 million.

Diamond Bank traded 17.31 million shares valued at N23.7 million, while Zenith Bank transacted 15.13 million shares worth N385.7 million.