By Nse Anthony-Uko
ABUJA, (Sundiata Post) – The Nigerian stocks market, yesterday was bullish, as investors’ investment went up by N46 billion.
In summary, the All Share Index (ASI) gained 132.06 absolute points, representing an increase of 0.52 per cent to close at 25,753 points. Similarly, the market capitalisation gained N46 billion, to close at N8.911 trillion.
The Upturn was significantly impacted by gains recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Dangote Cement, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Access Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, UBA, Nestle Nigeria, Zenith Bank and FBNH Holdings.
Analysts at Afrinvest noted that, “The influx of largely positive earnings scorecards has continued to strengthen investor sentiment in equities and we expect market performance to continue to be determined by the earnings releases.
“Overall, we are very positive on earnings for first quarter, 2017 due to subtle improvement in macro-economic fundamentals in the Quarter and different survival strategies adopted by companies.”
Market breadth was positive, with 22 gainers versus 15 losers. Livestock recorded the highest price gain of 9.68 per cent, to close at 68 kobo per share. Stanbic IBTC followed with a gain of 6.75 per cent to close at N25, while Nascon Allied Industries Plc appreciated by 4.90 per cent to close at N7.71 per share.
Learn Africa went up by 4.88 per cent to close at 86 kobo, while CI Leasing appreciated by 4.84 per cent to close at 65 kobo per share.
On the other hand, Unilever Nigeria led the losers’ chart by 9.72 per cent, to close at N32.05 per share. Wapco followed with a decline of 5.83 per cent to close at N48.50, while Continental Reeinsurance declined by 4.92 per cent to close at N1.16 per share.
Africa Prudential depreciated by 4.81 per cent to close at N2.57 and Transnational Express declined by 4.60 per cent to close at 83 kobo per share.
Total volume traded appreciated by 45.37 per cent to 371.76 million shares, worth N2.81 billion, and traded in 3,627 deals. Transactions in the shares of Access Bank topped the activity chart with 104.62 million shares valued at N658.23 million. Fidelity Bank followed with 33.66 million shares worth N27.71 million, while Guaranty Trust Bank traded 30.68 million shares valued at N829.04 million.
Zenith Bank traded 30.17 million shares valued at N447.56 million, while Transcorp sold 26.38 million shares worth N22.6 million.