Nigerian Equities Market Appreciates By 1.5%

NSE

Lagos, Nigeria, December 4, 2017 – Last week was a four-day trading week due to the Eid-el-Maulud celebration on Friday as investors on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) traded a total turnover of 14.257 billion shares worth N35.056 billion in 17,379 deals.

This was in contrast to a total of 2.182 billion shares valued at N22.795 billion that exchanged hands in the previous week in 17,019 deals.

Market capitalisation increased by N205.5 billion to N13.2 trillion, exceeding the N13.0 trillion mark for the second time this year.

Performance in the market was largely bullish as large, mid and small cap stocks rallied; hence, the All Share Index (ASI) appreciated 1.5 per cent week-to-date to close at a three-month high of 37,944.60 points while year-to-date (YTD) and month-to-date (MTD) returns advanced to 41.2 per cent  and 3.4 per cent respectively.

The local bourse started the week off on a negative note, as profit taking in banking stocks – ETI (-3.0%), Zenith Bank (-1.0%) and Access Bank (-0.6%) – dragged the ASI 0.31 per cent lower.

However, the market rebounded on Tuesday, majorly on the back of gains in Nigerian Breweries (+4.9%), Stanbic IBTC (+4.6%) and Dangote Cement (+0.4%) which drove the All Share Index 0.68 per cent higher.

In the same vein, the market performed positively on Wednesday with the ASI rising 0.55 per cent due broad-based rally across sectors. To close the week, the market sustained its positive run, up 0. 62 per cent  on Thursday against the backdrop of buying interest in bellwether Industrial Goods and Banking stocks – Dangote Cement  (+1.7%),  Lafarge Cement WAPCO (+1.6%) and Guaranty Trust Bank  (+1.1%) and Zenith Bank (+0.6%).

Performance across sectors was largely bullish this week as all the indices under our coverage advanced week-to-date . The Insurance index led the gainers chart, up 1.5 per cent due to price appreciations in Mansard Insurance (+4.9%) and Continental Re-insurance (+4.5%).

The banking and oil & gas indices trailed, rising 1.4 per cent apiece – buoyed by gains in Fidelity Bank  (+21.2%), Guaranty Trust Bank (+2.4%), Forte Oil (+15.0%) and Total Nigeria  (+4.8%).

Following closely was the consumer goods index which climbed 1.3 per cent as Dangote Sugar Refinery (+4.7%) and Dangote Flour (+11.6%) rallied. The industrial goods index gained 1.1 per cent to close out the positive performance, buoyed by buying interest in Dangote Cement (+3.8%).

Independent.ng

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