Equities hit ₦14 trillion amid widespread rally
Investors in Nigerian equities pocketed ₦330 billion in net capital gains yesterday at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) as increased scramble for quoted shares pushed the total market value of quoted equities to ₦14.18 trillion.
With more than four gainers for every loser, the stock market reopened yesterday with a strong market-wide rally, which nudged equities to their highest performance so far this year. Average day-on-day return yesterday stood at 2.38 per cent, equivalent to net capital gain of ₦330 billion.
The sustained rally pushed the average year-to-date return for Nigerian equities so far in 2018 to 4.2 per cent.
Aggregate market value of all quoted companies on the NSE rose from its opening value of ₦13.851 trillion to close at ₦14.181 trillion. The All Share Index (ASI)-the benchmark index at the NSE also crossed another level from 38,923.26 points to close at 39,849.65 points.
All sectoral indices closed on the upside, underlining the widespread demand for quoted shares. The NSE Industrial Goods Index led the rally with a gain of 2.3 per cent. The NSE Banking Index followed with 2.0 per cent. The NSE Oil & Gas Index posted a gain of 1.7 per cent while the NSE Consumer Goods Index and NSE Insurance Index returned 1.1 per cent each.
There were 37 gainers against nine losers. Dangote Cement led the gainers with a gain of ₦11.15 to close at ₦234.26. 11 followed with a gain of ₦8.50 to close at ₦178.50. Guinness Nigeria rose by ₦4.40 to close at ₦100. Conoil rallied ₦3.01 to close at ₦32.41 while Nigerian Breweries added ₦1.90 to close at ₦140 per share.
Total turnover stood at 604.5 million shares valued at ₦16.1 billion. Transnational Corporation of Nigeria was the most active stock with a turnover of 115.19 million shares valued at ₦203.28 million. Nigerian Breweries followed with a turnover of 88.29 million shares valued at ₦13.36 billion while Diamond Bank placed third with 82.72 million shares valued at ₦162.32 million.
“The market is expected to remain in the positive territory but will likely be characterised by a mix of profit taking and bargain hunting by investors,” FSDH Securities stated.
Analysts at Afrinvest Securities stated that the rally was in line with expectation as investor sentiment remained strong.
“We expect the trend to be sustained in subsequent trading sessions against the backdrop of a broad based rally across sectors,” Afrinvest Securities stated.
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