Investors speculate on Zenith Bank, Stanbic IBTC, Lafarge WAPCO to lift Nigeria market index 0.03%
Adesola Afolabi was a businessamlive reporter and Head of Financial desk.
Speculative trading in the shares of Zenith Bank, Stanbic IBTC and Lafarge WAPCO gave the banking and industrial sectors a marginal lift on Tuesday and helped the raise the Nigerian Stock Exchange All-Share Index by just o.03 percent
The ASI closed 32,152.90 points, reducing the month-to-date and year-to-date losses to 0.97 percent and 15.93 percent respectively.
Specifically, the banking index turned positive with a gain of 0.25 percent owing to renewed interest in shares of Stanbic (+2.13%) and Zenith Bank (+1.04%). The industrial goods index, up 1.87 percent also closed positive, following the 8.67 percent gain in Lafarge WAPCO shares.
On the flip side, the insurance (-2.23%), consumer goods (-0.33%), and oil & gas (-0.26%) indices posted losses, owing to negative returns in the shares of Axamansard (-8.95%), Honeywell Flourmill (-7.41%) and Forte Oil (-6.15%), respectively.
Market breadth turned negative with 26 losers and 14 gainers, led by C&I Leasing (-10.00%) and Unity Bank (+9.86%).
Total volume of trades spiked 181.30 percent to 399.76 million units, valued at N2.24 billion (+44.10%), and exchanged in 2,880 deals.
Investment analysts at Cordros Capital reiterated a conservative outlook for equities in the short to medium term amidst brewing political concerns, and the absence of a positive trigger.
They however noted in their November 13 note to investors that stable macroeconomic fundamentals remain supportive of recovery in the long term.