Equities market sustains gain on 13 firms’ share price increase

The equities market of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday sustained prior day gain by 0.34 per cent, following buying interest in BUA Cement, Dangote Sugar Refinery and 11 other stocks.

Specifically, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 85.19 absolute points, representing a gain of 0.34 per cent to close at 25,335.15 points. Similarly, the market capitalisation rose by N44 billion to close at N13.216 trillion.

The uptrend was impacted by gains recorded in large and medium capitalised stocks, amongst which are; BUA Cement, BOC Gases Nigeria, Dangote Sugar Refinery, Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals and Prestige Assurance.

Analysing by sector, the Industrial Goods (+2.7per cent), Insurance (+0.4per cent) and Consumer Goods (+0.3per cent) indices closed in the green, while the Oil and Gas (-2.3per cent) and Banking (-0.2per cent) indices recorded losses.

Analysts at Afrinvest Limited stated that “We expect to see gains in the next trading session as investors continue to seek bargain hunting opportunities.”

However, market breadth closed negative, with 13 gainers versus 22 losers. BOC Gases Nigeria, Mutual Benefits Assurance and Royal Exchange recorded the highest price gain of 10 per cent each, to close at N4.51, 22 kobo and 22 kobo, respectively, per share. Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals followed with a gain 9.79 per cent to close at N2.13, while Prestige Assurance rose by 9.38 per cent to close at 70 kobo, per share.

Linkage Assurance went up by 4.17 per cent to close at 50 kobo, while BUA Cement appreciated by 4.10 per cent to close at N43.20,  per share. On the other hand, Mobil Nigeria led the losers’ chart by 9.96 per cent, to close at N192.60, per share. Fidson Healthcare followed with a decline of 7.69 per cent to close at N3.00, while Japaul Oil & Maritime Services lost 7.41 per cent to close at 25 kobo, per share.

Red Star Express lost 6.56 per cent to close at N3.56, while Jaiz Bank shed 5.63 per cent each to close at 67 kobo, per share.

The total volume of trades increased by 16.6 per cent to 268.740 million units, valued at N1.121 billion and exchanged in 4,137 deals. Transactions in the shares of Mutual Benefits Assurance topped the activity chart with 99.450 million shares valued at N20.865 million. FCMB Group followed with 21.890 million shares worth N37.663 million, while FBN Holdings traded 17.924 million shares valued at N96.593 million.