Equity market on Wednesday extended its days of gain to four straight trading days, with the All Share Index (ASI) rising by 0.16% to close at 24,882.04, due to gains in the share prices of Cap, Glaxosmith, Stanbic, Pz, Guaranty, Mobil among others despite losses recorded by Zenith, Lafarge, Flourmill, May & Baker etc.
Investors gained N20.917 billion on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Wednesday, with the market capitalization rising to N12.980 trillion.
The positive closure of the market was triggered by high activity level with volume and value of shares traded rising by 148.14% and 167.07% respectively on Wednesday relative to Tuesday values.
383,289,488 units of shares valued at N3,892,572,515.51 were traded in 3,860 deals on Wednesday compared to a total of 154,467,244 units of shares worth N1,457,531,880.26 which exchanged hands on Tuesday in 4,222 deals.
The activity chart in volume was led by the shares of FBNH, with 66,441,272 units of stocks valued at N334,160,917.25 exchanged in 307 deals. In terms of value, Presco took the lead with 26,155,928 units of shares worth N1,255,775,361.50 traded in just 21 deals.
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Four indices under our watch appreciated while only one declined on Tuesday. The Insurance Index declined marginally by 0.01% to settle at 122.68, after growing by 2.70% on Tuesday.
The Banking Index extended its gains by 0.07% to close at 285.17, driven by gains in Stanbic and Guaranty among others.
The Oil and Gas Index maintained its growth with 0.11% to close at 170.93 as gains in Mobil and others outweighed the losses recorded by Eterna and Oando
The Consumer Index increased by 0.01% to close at 403.30, while the Industrial Index declined by 0.01% to close at 1,155.35.
Investor sentiment weakened to 1.4x on Wednesday from 2.3x seen on Tuesday, as 17 stocks appreciated in prices with 12 declining compared to 23 stocks which advanced on Tuesday while 10 declined.
Top five gainers by percentage with the closing prices are; Cap (9.74%; N16.90), UAC-Prop (9.52%; N0.92), Glaxosmith (6.19%; 5.15), Neimeth (5.42%; N1.75) and Transcorp (5.08%; N0.62)
Top five decliners by percentage are; Eterna (-9.00%; N1.82), Livestock (-4.62%; N0.62), Mbenefit (-4.55%; N0.21), Lasaco (-4.00%; N0.24) and Maybaker (-3.33%; N2.90).
- Read more; May & Baker reports 151.91% growth in profits, N396.088 million in Q2 2020
- CAP Plc reports 30% decline in Profit after Tax for H1 2020, 59% decline in Q2
Analysts’ view at Investogist; We still maintain our negative outlook to the market in the short and medium term despite the positive rally.
Written by;
Ifunanya Ikueze
