NSE LIVE! Bargain-hunting lifts equities to marginal gain

After three successive negative trading sessions, bargain-hunting transactions for large-cap stocks helped the overall market position at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) to its first positive close since last week’s Thursday.

While there were still more losers to gainers, gains recorded by highly capitalised stocks in the breweries, oil and gas and consumer goods sectors lifted the overall market position to positive.

The All Share Index (ASI), the value-based common index that tracks prices at the NSE, inched up by 0.07 per cent to close at 27,522.62 points as against its opening index of 27,503.81 points.Average year-to-date return stood at -3.91 per cent.

Aggregate market value of all quoted equities on the Exchange rose from its opening value of N9.448 trillion to close at N9.454 trillion, representing a marginal gain of N6 billion.

Sectoral indices underlined the tight market situation with mixed performance across the sectors. The NSE Industrial Goods Index appreciated by 1.2 per cent. The NSE Banking Index rose by 0.2 per cent. The NSE Consumer Goods Index inched up by 0.1 per cent. However, the NSE Oil & Gas Index declined by 1.0 per cent while the NSE Insurance Index dropped by 0.1 per cent.

Guinness Nigeria led the 17-stock gainers’ list with a gain of N1.88 to close at N97.85. Seplat Petroleum Development Company followed with a gain of N1.87 to close at N320.20. Lafarge Africa chalked up N1.70 to close at N58.

Unilever Nigeria gathered N1.01 to close at N40.04. Nigerian Breweries added 19 kobo to close at N140.20. Union Bank of Nigeria rose by 11 kobo to close at N4.10 per share. Oando added 9.0 kobo to close at N4.93 while United Bank for Africa chalked up 7.0 kobo to close at N4.59 per share.

Read also: NSE LIVE! Equities lose N70b on 3682 deals

Turnover was above average with the exchange of 295.7 million shares valued at N3.59 billion in 3,709 deals. Banking stocks continued to dominate top activities chart. For the second consecutive trading session, Guaranty Trust Bank was the most active stock with 68.95 million shares valued at N1.855 billion. Access Bank followed with 30.76 million shares valued at N166.34 million while Fidelity Bank placed third with 26.96 million shares valued at N24.56 million.

On the downside, Seven-Up Bottling Company led the 18-stock losers’ list with a loss of N7.24 to close at N137.66. Forte Oil dropped by N6.94 to close at N165.06. Total Nigeria declined by N1 to close at N240. Mobil Oil Nigeria dropped by 72 kobo to close at N170.06. UAC of Nigeria lost 70 kobo to close at N20.80. Presco dropped by 30 kobo to close at N45. Nigerian Aviation Handling Company dropped by 17 kobo to N3.33 while Vitafoam Nigeria slipped by 15 kobo to close at N2.85 per share.

“We are of the view that today’s bullish performance may be attributed to bargain hunting in equities following 3 consecutive days of losses. We expect performance to remain soft in the trading session ahead,” Afrinvest Securities stated.

 

 

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