Equities market sustains positive performance, ASI records 1.01% growth
Adesola Afolabi was a businessamlive reporter and Head of Financial desk.
…as banking stocks emerge investors delight
Nigeria’s equities market continued its bullish recovery as the All Share Index gained by 1.01 percent Thursday to close at 27,629.66 basis points. The market capitalisation likewise inched N135 billion or 1.01 percent to close at N13.441 trillion against N13.306 trillion recorded on Wednesday.
The positive trend is linked to the swearing in of new ministers Wednesday as banking equities who recently declares interim dividends remained the most sought by investors.
Consequently, the top 5 most traded stocks Thursday was led by Zenith Bank accounting for 54.31 million shares worth N977.54 million.
Guaranty Trust Bank which recently declared an interim dividend of 30k came second with 38.21 million shares valued at N1.03 billion.
Transcorp traded 32.10 million shares worth N34.06 million, while Flour Mills traded 20.42 million shares valued at N275.68 million.
Ecobank Transnational Incorporated accounted for a total of 18.21 million shares worth N135.01 million.
Sola Oni, a chartered stockbroker and chief executive officer, Sofunix Investment and Communications, ascribed the upward trend to the swearing in of the ministers as a symbol of commencement of economic recovery.
“Stock market is never static. It responds to companies’ performance either good or bad, demand and supply and speculation, also called market hearsay.
“Beyond this, it aggregates investors’ reaction to information from the economic and political landscape.
“Our market is forward looking and investors buy into future of companies with expectation of better returns.
“But the same investors are ready to offload once they are not comfortable with available piece of information from the political and economic landscape.
“In the process of upswing and downswing, real investors take position, while speculators change position,” Mr Oni said.
Analysts at United Capital Plc said that: “Notably, market participants took the crystalisation of the swearing-in with some positivity, perhaps with the expectation that hastened fiscal policies and implementation of plans might revive the nation’s lack lustre growth.”
Market breadth also closed Thursday positive with 22 gainers and 13 losers.
Nestle maintained its dominance, leading the gainers’ table with N20 to close at N1,220 per share.
MTN Nigeria Communications followed with a gain of N2 to close at N138, while Dangote Cement improved by N1 to close at N167 per share.
Stanbic IBTC increased by 70k to close at N35, while Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) went up by 65k to close at N7.50 per share.
On the other hand, Okomu Oil Palm topped the losers’ chart, dropping by N4.35 to close at N40.15 per share.
MRS trailed with a loss of N2.05 to close at N18.80, while Unilever dipped 90k to close at N27 per share.
NCR lost 55k to close at N4.95, while UPL declined by 16k to close at N1.44 per share.
The day’s performance reduced year-to-date losses to 12.09 percent.