NSE LIVE! Equities recover with N11b gain

After two consecutive negative trading sessions, Nigerian equities pulled back into the green zone on Tuesday as highly capitalised back led a comeback bid for the bulls. The technical glitch that halted trading on Monday at the stock market, again forced the market to adjust its trading hours on Tuesday.

The All Share Index (ASI)-a value-based index that tracks prices of all quoted equities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), inched up by 0.13 per cent to close at 24,659.17 points as against its opening index of 24,626.02 points.

Aggregate market value of all quoted equities also increased slightly by N11 billion from N8.471 trillion to close at N8.482 trillion. The average year-to-date return, though still negative, improved to -13.91 per cent.

With 22 advancers to 16 decliners, the market situation showed both widespread positive sentiments as well as gains recorded by many highly capitalised stocks, especially in the banking sector. The NSE Banking Index rose by 2.0 per cent. The NSE Insurance Index also gained 1.0 per cent. However, the NSE Oil & Gas Index dropped by 1.3 per cent while the NSE Industrial Goods Index slipped by 0.04 per cent.

Ecobank Transnational Incorporated led the rally with a gain of 70 kobo to close at N14.70. Guaranty Trust Bank, NSE’s most capitalised banking stock, and Guinness Nigeria followed with a gain of 35 kobo each to close at N15.70 and N99.84 respectively. Zenith Bank garnered 22 kobo to close at N11.52. Tiger Branded Consumer Goods chalked up 11 kobo to close at N2.41 while United Bank for Africa added 10 kobo to close at N3.30 per share.

Total turnover stood at 228.90million shares valued at N1.44 billion in 3,239 deals. Banks also dominated the activities chart. The three most active stocks were United Bank for Africa, with 62.20 million shares; Guaranty Trust Bank, with 29.87 million shares and Zenith Bank, with a turnover of 29.71 million shares. Financial services sector alone accounted for 205.78 million shares on Tuesday.

Analysts at Afrinvest Securities remained cautious noting that “the overall short term outlook of the market remains bleak”.

Read also: NSE LIVE! Stock Exchange suffers glitch as equities lose N32b

“As more first quarter 2016 results filter in, market performance remains driven by earnings releases. The results released so far have been in line with analysts’ expectation save for Unilever Nigeria which posted a positive earnings surprise. Sentiments remain strong at the moment and we expect the momentum to be sustained in the sessions ahead. Weak macroeconomic indicators and possibility of the exclusion of Nigeria from the MSCI Frontier index remain key risks to the downside,” Afrinvest Securities stated.

On the downside, Nigerian Breweries led the losers with a loss of N2 to close at N102.50. Okomu Oil Palm dropped by N1.52 to close at N30.48. UAC of Nigeria lost 97 kobo to close at N18.43. PZ Cussons Nigeria declined by 87 kobo to close at N20.35. Union Bank of Nigeria and Cement Company of Northern Nigeria lost 23 kobo each to close at N4.54 and N6.45 respectively while Interlink Technologies dropped by 21 kobo to close at N4 per share.

 

 

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