Stock Market Sees Modest Rebound With N22billion Gain

Equity trading at the Nigerian stock market got a breather on Thursday, August 4, after a five consecutive day downward trend.

Market value witnessed a modest recovery as highly capitalised stocks on the floor rallied to realise significant gain. Market capitalisation added N21.8 billion to close at N9.531 trillion compared to a loss of N49 billion recorded previously when market capitalisation closed at N9.509 trillion.

Aggregate market value of all quoted equities rose to N9.531 trillion from its opening value of N9.509 trillion.
With 17 losers to 14 gainers, the positive overall market position was driven largely by the gains recorded by large-cap downstream oil companies, breweries and cement companies.

These reflected on the performance of the sectoral indices. The NSE Oil & Gas Index rose by 1.4 per cent. The NSE Consumer Goods Index rallied 0.8 per cent while the NSE Industrial Goods Index appreciated by 0.4 per cent.

However, the NSE Banking Index declined by 0.6 per cent while the NSE Insurance Index depreciated by 0.4 per cent.The average year-to-date return improved marginally, though still negative, to -3.11 per cent.

Total Nigeria led the rebound with a gain of N16.60 to close at N222.60. Mobil Oil Nigeria followed with a gain of N8.10 to close at N170.10. Nigerian Breweries chalked up N2.45 to close at N135. Guinness Nigeria gathered N1.01 to close at N95 while Lafarge Africa added 60 kobo to close at N51.60 per share.

On the flip side, International Breweries led the losers with a loss of 96 kobo to close at N18.38. Flour Mills of Nigeria dropped by 43 kobo to close at N20. Forte Oil lost 40 kobo to close at N166.82. Guaranty Trust Bank and Union Bank of Nigeria declined by 18 kobo each to close at N23.88 and N4 respectively while Zenith Bank lost 10 kobo to close at N16.35 per share.

 Total turnover stood below recent average with the exchange of 155.77 million shares valued at N1.53 billion in 3,320 deals. Banking stocks dominated the activities chart. FBN Holdings led the chart with a turnover of 30.75 million shares worth N101.85 million. Fidelity Bank followed with a turnover of 23.12 million shares worth N24.47 million while Guaranty Trust Bank placed third with a turnover of 14.15 million shares valued at N340.59 million.