Stock market appreciates by 1.42% as investors take bargain in value stocks

Nigeria’s equities market ended on a positive note on Thursday with the lead market indicator of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), the All Share Index (ASI) recording an appreciation of 1.42 per cent.

The day’s performance increased the ASI by 507.12 points to close at 36,116.19 points, improved the month to date returns to 1.71 percent and enhanced the year to date returns to, 33.2 per cent, as the market capitalisation grew by N175bn to close at N12.448 trillion.

The industrial index recorded the largest gain following interest in Dangote Cement shares, this was followed by the consumer goods index which gained 1 percent driven by demands for Dangote sugar and Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc shares.
On the flip side, the Oil&Gas and Bank indices fell 2.87 per cent and 0.26 per cent respectively on account of sell offs in Seplat, Mobil, Oando and FBN Holdings shares.

Market breadth was, however, negative with 19 gainers to 22 losers. Guinness Nigeria Plc maintained its top position on the gainer’s chart as investors rally for the stock amidst a robust full year dividend declared, following an impressive 2017 full year report released on the floor of the NSE on Tuesday. The stock further improved 10.23 per cent, to close at N96.33 per share.

It was trailed by Dangote cement which appreciated 4.73 per cent to close at N216.91 per share while Stanbic added 3.88 per cent to close at N39.90 per share. AIICO Insurance gained 3.64 per cent to close at 57 kobo per share and Africa Prudential Registrars gained 3.57 per cent to close at N3.19 per share.

Conversely, Seplat led the day’s losers with a depreciation of 5 per cent to close at N457.90 per share, NCR dropped 4.91 per cent to close at N6.97 per share while May & Baker declined 4.76 per cent to close at 60 kobo. Skye Bank fell 4.76 per cent to close at 60 kobo per share and FBN Holdings depreciated 4.32 per cent to close at N5.76 per share

Surprisingly, total volume of shares traded by investors in 4,622 deals at the end of the day’s transactions, amounted to 222.7million units valued at N4.2 billion, in contrast to a total of 281.8m shares worth N5.4bn traded by investors in 4,066 deals on Wednesday.

Sterling emerged the most traded stock with 35.6 million units sold at N37.2 million, Royal Exchange was next with the sale of 35.7 million units of shares valued at N17.9 million. Fidelity Bank was third with the sale of 21.9 million shares worth N29.4 million, Access Bank sold 21.5 million shares at N212.5 million while Zenith Bank sold 18.5 million shares worth N442.7 million

Afolabi Adesola