NSE LIVE! Santa Claus doles out N70b to equities’ investors

Investors netted N70 billion in capital gains on Wednesday as the Nigerian stock market reopened after the Christmas holidays to sustained bullish rally, in a clear replay of what is popular referred to as Santa Claus rally in capital market parlance.

The Santa Claus rally is the tendency for stock prices to go up in the week after Christmas, mostly in anticipation of expected positioning for dividends by the first month of the New Year.

With nearly two advancers to every decliner, the key benchmark indices for the overall market and sectoral indices showed widespread uptrend as portfolio managers rebalanced their portfolios for the year-end.

Aggregate market value of all quoted equities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) rose by N70 billion to N9.183 trillion as against its opening value of N9.113 trillion. The All Share Index (ASI), the common value-based index that tracks prices at the Exchange, rose by 0.76 per cent from 26,486.02 points to 26,688.25 points.

Read also: NSE LIVE! Equities lose N41b as investors take profit

Most sectoral and group indices closed on the positive, underlining the spread of the price appreciation. The NSE Consumer Goods Index appreciated by 1.5 per cent. The NSE Insurance Index and the NSE Oil and Gas Index rose by 1.1 per cent each while the NSE Banking Index trended upward by 0.7 per cent. However, the NSE Industrial Goods Index slipped by 0.02 per cent.

Mobil Oil Nigeria led the 30-stock gainers’ list with a gain of N12 to close at N292. Nigerian Breweries rose by N4.48 to close at N142.03. Total Nigeria chalked up N3.12 to close at N287.12. Cadbury Nigeria added 80 kobo to close at N10.83. Stanbic IBTC Holdings rose by 74 kobo to N15.66 while Nascon Allied Industries garnered 64 kobo to close at N8.19.

Turnover was however below recent average. Investors traded a total of 130.6 million shares valued at N1.2 billion in 2,257 deals. International Breweries was the most active stock with 16.21 million shares valued at N289.23 million. Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp) followed with 12.42 million shares worth N10.98 million while FCMB Group recorded a turnover of 11.66 million shares valued at N12.59 million.

On the downside, Guinness Nigeria led the 18-stock losers’ list with a loss of N4.30 to close at N80. Ecobank Transnational Incorporated followed with a loss of 54 kobo to close at N10.34. Forte Oil dropped by 26 kobo to close at N103.61. Custodian and Allied declined by 19 kobo to close at N3.74. Ekocorp dropped by 16 kobo to close at N3.21 while Juli lost 8.0 kobo to close at N1.67 per share.

“We are of the view that the bullish sentiment today has been largely dictated by end of year portfolio rebalancing by institutional investors. We expect this bullish run to persist in tomorrow’s trading session,” analysts at Afrinvest Securities stated.

 

Ripples Nigeria…without borders, without fears

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now