Stock Market Halts Three-day Profit-taking, Up 0.13%

Kayode Tokede

The Nigerian stock market yesterday halted its three-day investors profit-taking momentum as gains in BUA Cement Plc and 21 others lifted the major index by 0.13 per cent.

The Nigerian Exchange Limited All-Share Index (NGX ASI) gained 130.66 basis points or 0.13 per cent to close at 104,387.47 basis points as with the Month-till-Date (MtD) and Year-till-Date (YtD) gains increasing to +4.4per cent and +39.6per cent, respectively.

Also, market capitalisation rose by N74 billion to close at N59.022 trillion.

Analysing by sectors, the NGX Banking index added 0.9per cent, NGX Insurance appreciated by 0.6per cent and NGX Industrial Goods rose by 0.4per cent, while the NGX Oil & Gas index closed flat.

The NGX Consumer Goods dipped by 0.1per cent, the sole loser yesterday.

The upturn was driven by price appreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks amongst which are; BUA Cement, Guinness Nigeria, Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO) and Transnational Corporation (Transcorp).

Investor sentiment, as measured by market breadth closed negative as 23 stocks advanced, while 30 declined. Juli emerged the highest price gainer of 10 per cent to close at N7.15, per share. Transcorp followed with a gain of 9.96 per cent to close at N14.90, while International Energy Insurance increased by 9.66 per cent to close at N1.59, per share.

eTranzact International advanced by 9.65 per cent to close at N6.25, while Guinea Insurance rose by 8.33 per cent to close at 39 kobo, per share. On the other side, Deap Capital Management and Trust led others on the losers’ chart with 10 per cent to close at 63 kobo, per share. Tourist Company of Nigeria followed with a decline of 9.86 per cent to close at N2.56, while CWG shed 9.09 per cent to close at N5.50, per share.

Caverton Offshore Support Group went down by 8.57 per cent to close at N1.60, while Omatek Ventures depreciated by 8.05 per cent to close at 80 kobo, per share.

The total volume traded rose by 12.8 per cent to 336.816 million units, valued at N9.285 billion, and exchanged in 8,790 deals. Transactions in the shares of United Bank for Africa (UBA) led the activity with 63.882 million shares worth N1.722 billion. Access Holdings followed with account of 32.02 million shares valued at N750.038 million, while Zenith Bank traded 21.772 million shares valued at N846.995 million.

Transcorp traded 20.619 million shares worth N300.491 million, while GTCO traded 19.038 million shares worth N894.623 million.