- As Nestle, Zenith, GTB, bellwethers, buoy bourse
The aggregate value of stock investment in the Nigerian capital market advanced by N140 billion following positive midweek trading on Wednesday.
Consequently, the benchmark index that tracks share prices in the market advanced by 267.60 or 0.76 per cent points to close at N35,493.15 basis points while market capitalisation hit N18.551 trillion as it appreciated with the same percentage points.
The session marked the third positive daily performance of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), coming from the downtrend and depressed posture it maintained throughout last week.
Trading statistics analysed by Business Metrics shows that the session was mixed in terms of activity level following 146.19 rise in traded volume against 22.40 per cent decline in value traded.
Meanwhile, market sentiments, measured by breadth, were in the green territory with the emergence of 26 gaining stocks against 13 declining counterparts while 14 others closed the day on unchanged prices.
Nestle topped gainers’ chart with N105 appreciation in its share price to close higher at N1,505 per share. Flourmill followed with N1.80 to close at N26.50.
Similarly, ZenithBank and Guinness trailed with N0.60 gain each to close N24.10 and N18.60 per share respectively while GUARANTY added N0.40 to close at N33.95 per share.
Conversely, WAPCO led decliners with N0.50 loss to close at N22 per share. UCAP shed N0.14 to close at N4.40 per share.
While Dangsugar and OANDO shed N0.10 each to close at N17.90 and N2.80 per share accordingly, NNFM declined by N0.70 to close the midweek session at N6.13 per share.
Collectively, investors traded a total of 650.55 million shares worth N2.29 billion in 3,952 trades as against 264.24 million share units valued at N2.95 billion that exchanged hands in 4,354 transactions the previous session.
Mixed sector performance
Performance across sectors was mixed as three of six indices closed in the green. The Consumer Goods index led gainers, up 3.8 per cent due to buying interest in Nestle Plc (+7.5 per cent) and Flour Mill (+7.3 per cent).
Trailing, the Banking and Insurance indices rose 1.9 per cent and 1.6 per cent respectively, following price appreciation in Zenith Bank (+2.6 per cent), GTB (+1.2 per cent), Wapic (+4.8 per cent) and Consolidated Insurance Plc (+7.4 per cent).
Conversely, the Oil & Gas and Industrial Goods indices were down 0.3 per cent and 0.2 per cent respectively as a result of price depreciation in Oando Plc (-3.5 per cent) and Wapco (-2.2 per cent). Lastly, the AFR-ICT index closed flat.
The NSE 30
The NSE 30 Index increased by 0.91 per cent to close at 1,458.51 points as against 1,445.29 points on the previous day. Market turnover closed with a traded volume of 107.99 million units.
Nestle and Flour Mills were the key gainers, while Lafarge Africa and Dangote Sugar were the key losers.
