Equities rebound with N316bn gain on demutualisation progress

By Omobayo Azeez

Responding to progresses recorded on the demutualisation exercise of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), the equities market has bounced back in black with a recovered gain of N316 billion in two days.

The positive results were posted on Tuesday and Wednesday with N232 billion and N84 billion respectively.

These partly cushioned the negative effect of coronavirus discovered in the country which had pared the equities market value in the three preceding trading sessions.

Recall that the first case of the hemorrhagic virus was reported in Nigeria on Thursday March 27, when the investors lost N87 billion to the fear, which further impacted negatively on Friday and Monday with N308 billion and N209 billion respectively.

Market players have however observed that the turnaround witnessed in the last two sessions was driven solely by the outcomes of a court ordered meeting (COM) and extra-ordinary meeting (EOM) held by members of the NSE on Tuesday, when significant progress was recorded on the plan to make the exchange shed its regulatory robe and become and profit-making bourse.

The NSE revealed in the latest trading statistics that the sentiment remained positive on the domestic bourse, with the benchmark index rising by 0.6 per cent to close at 26,415.54 basis points, while market capitalization also appreciated to N13.785 trillion after the gain of the day.

The day’s positive performance was also propped by bargain hunting across Tier I banking stocks such as Access Bank Plc and First Bank of Nigeria Holdings whose share prices appreciated by 6.5 per cent and9.7 per cent respectively

 Consequently, the Month-to-Date (MtD) return improved to 0.8 per cent, while Year-to-Date (YtD) loss moderated to -1.6 per cent.

Market breadth also closed positive with the emergence of 22 gainers against 10 decliners and 10 others that closed on unchanged prices.

Nigerian Breweries topped the gainers chart with N1.80 gain to close at N42.30 per share. UACN and ACCESS trailed with N0.70 and N0.55 profit to close at N8.80 and N9 per share respectively while FBNH and Ecobank each advanced by N0.5 gain to close at N5.65 and N5.9 per share respectively.

On the flip side, ARDOVA shed N1.7 to close at N15.30 per share and AFFRIPRUD, NAHCO and WAPCO shed N0.05 each to close at N4.80, N2.50 and N23.90 per share respectively. Law Union followed with N0.04 loss to close at N0.96 per share.