Bellwethers push market capitalisation by N10b

Price gains recorded by many highly capitalised stocks, aided the bulls to upstage the bears at the end of yesterday’s transactions, causing market capitalisation to appreciate by N10 billion.

Specifically, at the close transactions yesterday, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 20.66 absolute points, representing a growth of 0.10 per cent to close at 21,121.20 points. Similarly, the market capitalisation gained N10 billion to close at N11.007 trillion.

The upturn was impacted by gains recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Dangote Cement, Flour Mills of Nigeria, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria (Glaxosmith), Livestock Feeds and Union Diagnostic & Clinical Services.

On market performance, the chief operating officer of InvestData consulting Limited said: “The Coronavirus pandemic has however left investors across the globe worried over increasing economic impacts of the economic lockdown that may force the world into another round of recession at a time oil is already selling below the federal government’s revised benchmark price of $30 per barrel.”

He noted that the Nigerian equity market has remained under the heavy negative influence of the deadly virus as investors continue to play safe, despite the very attractive stock prices, saying that many funds are currently trapped by the bear, while few traders with trading capital take advantage of the induced drop in stock prices

He added that the most discerning investment decision presently is to avoid panic selling at the current prices.

However, market breadth closed negative, recording seven gainers and 19 losers.

Dangote Cement recorded the highest price gain of 9.93 per cent, to close at N128.40, per share. Livestock Feeds followed with a gain 9.38 per cent to close at 70 kobo, while Glaxosmith appreciated by 9.09 per cent to close at N4.80, per share.

Flour Mills went up by 5.48 per cent to close at N20.20, while Union Diagnostic & Clinical Services appreciated by four per cent to close at 26 kobo, per share. On the other hand, Nigerian Breweries led the losers’ chart by 9.27 per cent, to close at N24.80, per share.

Honeywell Flour Mils followed with a decline of 8.16 per cent to close at 90 kobo, while International Breweries went down by 6.54 to close at N5.00, per share.

MTN Nigeria shed 5.69 per cent to close at N92.80, while FBN Holdings depreciated by 5.13 per cent to close at N3.70, per share.

The total volume traded increased by 65.38 per cent to 255.59 million shares, worth N2.86 billion, and traded in 4,418 deals.

Transactions in the shares of Zenith Bank topped the activity chart with 100.83 million shares valued at N1.112 billion. Guaranty Trust Bank followed with 34.18 million shares worth N595.98 million, while FBN Holdings traded 28.96 million shares valued at N109.24 million.

Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp) traded 13.43 million shares valued at N8.09 million, while United Bank for Africa (UBA) transacted 13.83 million shares worth N65.63 million.