Renewed Interest in FBN Holdings, Others Lift Stock Market by N203bn

Kayode Tokede

Opening a new week for trading activities, the stock market of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) rebound by N203billion as investors renew interest in FBN Holdings, Access Holdings, and Geregu Power Plc, among others.

Accordingly, the  FBN Holdings gained 9.8 per cent, as Access Corporation and Geregu Power gained 9.7 per cent and 6.1 per cent respectively.

The NGX All Share Index (ASI) gained 373.62 basis points or 0.60 per cent to close at 62,943.35 basis points with the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns increasing to 3.2per cent and 22.8per cent, respectively.

Consequently, market capitalisation rose N203 billion to close at N34.273 trillion.

Also, market breadth closed positive, as 42 stocks gained relative to 28 losers. Daar Communications, Fidelity Bank and Unilever Nigeria recorded the highest price gain of 10 per cent each to close at 33 kobo, N7.37 and N15.95 respectively, per share. Sterling Financial Holdings Company followed with a gain of 9.97 per cent to close at N3.42, while John Holt rose by 9.94 per cent to close at N1.99, per share.

On the other hand, PZ Cussons Nigeria, Union Bank of Nigeria (UBN), Veritas Kapital Assurance and SFS Real Estate Investment Trust led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent each to close at N16.20, N6.30, 27 kobo and N69.30, respectively, per share. FTN Cocoa processors followed with a decline of 9.93 per cent to close at N2.54, while Eterna declined by 9.89 per cent to close at N23.70, per share.

The total volume traded advanced by 18.2 per cent to 710.02 million units, valued at N13.83 billion, and exchanged in 8,979 deals. Transactions in the shares of Sterling Financial Holdings Company topped the activity chart with 65.959 million shares valued at N216.572 million. Transnational Corporation (Transcorp) followed with 62.201 million shares worth N225.595 million, while Unity Bank traded 59.666 million shares valued at N79.965 million.

Access Holdings traded 51.055 million shares valued at N828.767 million, while Universal Insurance sold 49.807 million shares worth N12.338 million.

This week, analysts at United Capital Plc stated that, “we expect the bullish sentiments to resume in the equities market as investors will look to take advantage of the low-pricing of stocks (from last week’s selloffs) in the market.

“Lastly, we expect investors to begin to take positions ahead of the upcoming Q2, 2023 earnings season.”