Sell-off on Nigerian Bourse halted on Thursday, Investors gained N50.1 billion

The sell-off that ensued in the Nigerian equity market following the recent fall in oil prices, which wiped billions from investors’ portfolios was halted on Thursday with the All-Share Index rising by 0.38% to close at 25,520.97, the first positive close this week. YTD return settled at -4.92%.

The Nigerian Bourse Thursday’s gain came after three consecutive days of losses.

Investors’ wealth rose by N50.115 billion with the market capitalization settling at N13.314 trillion.

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Activity level

The activity levels declined, with the volume and value of traded shares dipping by 12.29% and 42.6% to 236.481mn and N1,645bn respectively.

The top three traded equities by volume are:

• ZENITHBANK – 33.164mn units worth N546.750mn traded in 357 deals
• FIDELITYBK – 29.698mn units worth N52.653mn traded in 104 deals
• MBENEFIT – 25.037mn units worth N5.007mn traded in 38 deals.

The top three traded equities by value are ZENITHBANK, GUARANTY, and SEPLAT.

Performance of Indices

Three out of the five indices under our watch closed in green, below are the performances of the five indices;

• The Banking Index was up by 2.28%
• Consumer Goods index rose by 0.08%
• The Industrial Goods Index gained 0.02%
• The Oil and Gas Index dropped by 1.28%
• The Insurance Index dipped by 1.66%

Investor sentiment

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (gain/loss ratio) was strong on Tuesday at 1.83x as 22 stocks advanced with 12 declining.

The top five gainers by percentage and closing prices are;

• ETERNA rose by 9.69% to close at N2.49
• CILEASING rose by 8.45% to close at N3.85
• WEMABANK rose by 7.84% to close at N0.55
• JAPAULOIL rose by 5.00% to close at N0.21
• CHAMS rose by 4.76% to close at N0.22

The top five decliners by percentage are;

• ABCTRANS lost 7.69% to close at N0.36
• CORNERST lost 7.58% to close at N0.61
• CHIPLC lost 5.88% to close at N0.32
• UNITYBNK lost 5.66% to close at N0.51
• FCMB lost 4.87% to close at N2.15

Written by;

Ifunanya Ikueze