Business
NSE LIVE! Equities break into major rally with N92bn gain
Nigerian equities broke into a major rally on Thursday as investors stepped up bargain-hunting across the sectors and subgroups of the stock market.
With nearly three gainers to one loser, the underlying positive sentiments at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) dominated transactions across the low, medium and highly capitalised stocks.
Benchmark indices at the Exchange showed an average day-on-day gain of 1.05 per cent, equivalent to net capital gain of N92 billion. Aggregate market value of all quoted equities rose from N8.743 trillion to close at N8.835 trillion.
The All Share Index (ASI), the main index for the market, also increased from 25,267.68 points to close at 25,533.82 points. The gain helped to moderate the negative average year-to-date return to -4.99 per cent.
Read also: NSE LIVE! Equities remain underweight with blue chips losses
Sectoral indices also showed widespread buying sentiments. The NSE Banking Index rose by 1.2 per cent. The NSE Industrial Goods Index appreciated by 1.0 per cent. The NSE Consumer Goods Index rallied by 0.7 per cent. The NSE Oil & Gas Index rose by 0.6 per cent while the NSE Insurance Index inched up by 0.4 per cent.
There were 24 gainers against nine losers. Mobil Oil Nigeria led the gainers with a gain of N5.01 to close at N300.01. Dangote Cement followed with a gain of N3 to close at N165. Unilever Nigeria rose by N1.49 to close at N33.49. Nigerian Breweries added N1 to close at N131 while Forte Oil rose by 80 kobo to close at N47.80 per share.
On the other hand, Guinness Nigeria led the losers with a loss of 80 kobo to close at N60. UAC of Nigeria followed with a drop of 30 kobo to close at N13 while Cement Company of Northern Nigeria declined by 23 kobo to close at N4.47 per share.
Total turnover stood at 352 million shares valued at N2.45 billion in 2,438 deals. The three most active stocks were Continental Insurance, 58.02 million shares; Staco Insurance, 56.45 million shares and Zenith Bank, which recorded a turnover of 44.68 million shares.
Market analysts said they expected the uptrend to continue in the last trading session of the week as investors continue to hunt for value stocks.
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yanju omotodun
March 31, 2017 at 3:23 pm
24 gainers to 9 losers is one of the best stock market report for this quarter of the year. Increased gainers and more equities. More of this we crave.
seyi jelili
March 31, 2017 at 4:02 pm
The shareholders all thrive in this week stock watch and I believe the uptrend will persist even next week.
JOHNSON PETER
March 31, 2017 at 4:18 pm
Amen. Forex is appreciating too. So all work hand in hand.
JOHNSON PETER
March 31, 2017 at 4:17 pm
I didn’t see any banking sector here. Does it mean they didn’t invest this week or how?
Or they lost?
Animashaun Ayodeji
March 31, 2017 at 7:37 pm
This is not surprising, the week started on good not and we have the last working day of the week smiling and happy with positive outcome.
Agbor Chris
March 31, 2017 at 7:40 pm
I may happy with the day’s total outcome, it’s all positive result with wide margin between gainers and losers. The companies are beginning to get better, it’s a very good one for the market
Anita Kingsley
March 31, 2017 at 7:43 pm
Tomorrow’s result may flop everything, don’t be rest assure that NSE made positive outcome this week, by the time the overall weekly result is you, we may see negative rule over positive o.