NSE LIVE! Equities break even with N93b gain

After three consecutive days of losses, Nigerian equities staged a comeback yesterday as increased bargain-hunting turned the market into a bit of sellers’ market, allowing most traded shares to close with a premium.
Benchmark indices at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) indicated considerable rebound in shares prices. The All Share Index (ASI)-the value-based common index that tracks share prices of all quoted companies, recorded a day-on-day gain of 0.99 per cent to close at 27,559.18 points as against its opening index of 27,287.89 points.
Aggregate market value of all quoted equities also rose correspondingly from N9.382 trillion to close at N9.475 trillion, representing a gain of N93 billion. The upturn moderated the negative average year-to-date return to -20.48 per cent.
The recovery was driven by widespread gains across the sectors as well as gains within the highly capitalised stocks group. The NSE Consumer Goods Index rose by 1.5 per cent. The NSE Banking Index appreciated by 1.2 per cent. The NSE Insurance Index rose by 0.7 per cent. The NSE Industrial Goods index gathered 0.3 per cent while the NSE Oil & Gas Index also gained 0.3 per cent.
“We believe investors’ renewed interest on the bourse may not be unconnected to bargain hunting after the market had sunk to a 36-month low in the previous session. We advise investors to remain bullish on stocks with sound fundamentals while maintaining medium to long term investment horizon,” Afrinvest Securities stated in post-trading review.
Analysts at Cowry Asset Management said bargain-hunting investors were exploiting the low prices in the market.
FSDH Securities attributed the uptrend to what it described as December effect, a reference to portfolio rebalancing and the tendency to take early positions in stocks in expectation of their year-end earnings and dividend recommendations.

Read also: NSE LIVE! Equities in tight trades as bargain-hunting deepens

With 22 gainers to 18 losers, the market showed a stronger momentum compared with when overall market position had been driven by few large-cap stocks. Nigerian Breweries, NSE’s second most capitalised stock, led the gainers with a gain of N4 to close at N120. Dangote Cement, NSE’s most capitalised stock, followed with a gain of N2 to close at N160. Presco placed third with a gain of N1.20 to close at N32.20. PZ Cussons Nigeria added N1 to close at N26 while Guinness Nigeria rose by 68 kobo to close at N123.80 per share.
Total turnover stood at 249.1 million shares valued at N3.08 billion in 2,531 deals. Guaranty Trust Bank was the most active stock with a turnover of 88.77 million shares worth N1.78 billion. FBN Holdings followed with a turnover of 67.95 million shares worth N330.2 million while Zenith Bank placed third with 17.96 million shares valued at N287.99 million.
On the downside, Lafarge Africa led with a loss of 64 kobo to close at N90.61. Ikeja Hotel followed with a loss of 35 kobo to close at N3.34. Portland Paints and Products Nigeria dropped by 19 kobo to N3.61 while Caverton Offshore Support Group lost 12 kobo to close at N2.47 per share.

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