Trading on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange ended positive on Wednesday, sustaining the upward trend it begun on Tuesday.
At the close of transactions on Wednesday, the benchmark index rose 0.6% or 160.43 basis points to close at 26,415.54 basis points from 26,255.11 basis points.
While the Market Capitalisation which previously stood at N13,681 trillion on Tuesday, increased also by 0.6% or 84 billion Naira to close the day at 13,765 trillion Naira.
Cordros securities believe the gain was realised “as bargain hunting continue across Tier I banking stocks, that is ACCESS BANK PLC (+6.5%) and FBN HOLDINGS PLC (+9.7%)”.
“Consequently, the Month-to-Date return (+0.8%) turned positive, while Year-to-Date loss moderated to -1.6%”.
However, the total volume of trades decreased by 20.7% to 307.72 million units, valued at N2.81 billion and exchanged in 4,419 deals.
FBN HOLDINGS PLC was the most traded stock by volume at 50.25 million units, while ZENITH BANK PLC was the most traded stock by value at N966.29 million.
All sectors indices closed positive except for the Oil & Gas index which declined by 0.7% following a selloff in ARDOVA.
The Insurance index gained 2.8%, Banking index gained 1.7%, Consumer Goods index gained 0.82%, and Industrial Goods index gained 0.37%.
Market sentiment, as measured by market breadth, was positive, as 22 stocks gained, relative to 10 losers.
NEM INSURANCE PLC gained 0.17k or 10.0% to close at 1.87k per share from 1.70k per share and ROYAL EXCHANGE PLC gained 0.20k or 10.0% to close at 0.22k per share from 0.20k per share, topping the gainer’s list.
While ARDOVA PLC declined from a previous selling price of N17.00 to close on Wednesday at N15.30k per share, losing N1.70k or 10.0% and DEAP CAPITAL MANAGEMENT & TRUST PLC fell 0.03k or 8.33% from previous selling price of 0.36k per share and stood at 0.33k per share on Wednesday, making them the largest decliners.
