The Nigerian equities market has halted a two-day downward trend as the growth indicator of the equities market swelled N136.8 billion at the close of Wednesday’s trading activities.
Market capitalisation settled at N14.849 trillion from N14.712 trillion recorded at the end of the previous trading session, while lead market indicator, the All Share Index (ASI) appreciated 0.93 percent to close the day at 40,992.97 points.
The performance indicators turned positive, on the back of bargain hunting prevalent in the consumer goods and industrial sector which appreciated 1.63 percent and 0.74 percent respectively as Unilever gained 4.91 percent while Dangote Cement appreciated 2.67 percent.
Market breadth, however, remained negative as 15 stocks posted gains while 30 posted declines.
The day’s gainers were led by Cutix Plc that added 5 percent to settle at N3.15 per share. It was followed by Unilever that gained 4.91 percent to close at N52.35 per share while Nigeria Police Force Microfinance bank gained 4.86 percent to close at N1.94 per share. Conversely, Skyebank led the list of Wednesday’s laggards following a price depreciation of 9.41 percent. The share price thus crashed to 77 kobo. Diamond Bank followed with a share price decline of 9.15 percent and closed the day at N1.49 per share while Japaul Oil dropped 5.71 percent to close at 33 kobo per share.
A review of the Sectoral performance for the day revealed that of the five major sectoral indices, the consumer goods index appreciated the most (+1.63%) to close at 973.26 points. It was followed by the Industrial goods index that gained 0.74 percent to close at 2,084.32 points.
The insurance index also appreciated 0.31 percent to close at 144.38 points whereas, the NSE Oil and Gas index slumped 0.34 percent to close at 359.57 points, coming after the NSE Banking that recorded the highest losses for the day with a decline of 0.39 percent to close at 518.51 points.
Statistics on trading activities show a total turnover of 259.5 million shares worth N4.4 billion in 4,000 deals were traded by investors on the floor of the Exchange during the day.
Top three traders were Diamond Bank, Zenith Bank, and Guaranty Trust Bank. They sold 68.6 million shares, 33.8 million shares and 31.4 million shares at N102.2 million, N943.1 million and N1.4 billion respectively.
As investor sentiment remains buoyed by optimism around positive macroeconomic fundamentals, outlook by research analysts for the equities market remains positive.
