By Chinwendu Obienyi
Positive earnings releases largely neutered the tense political landscape as renewed appetite in the shares of Nigerian Breweries, Zenith bank and GT bank by investors trading on the floor Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) pushed the market capitalization up by N158 billion in two consecutive trading sessions.
The market had closed in the red as at February 18, 2018 with investors reacting to the postponed elections at the weekend but rebounded by 0.2 per cent on Tuesday.
At the sound of the closing gong yesterday, the All-Share Index climbed northward by 0.64 per cent to close at 32,614.05 points while market capitalization which opened at N12.085 trillion, rose by N77 billion to settle at N12.162 trillion.
Set against the foregoing, the Year-to-Date (YtD) gain notched higher by 3.8 per cent. Analysts at Afrinvest said, “Following two consecutive sessions of positive performance, we do not rule out the possibility of profit taking in subsequent sessions this week”.
Also, activity level also strengthened as volume and value of stocks traded advanced 22.4 and 35.6 per cent to 443.78 million units and N5.64 billion respectively, exchanged in 4,697 deals.
Performance across sectors was bullish as 4 of 5 indices closed in the green. The Consumer Goods and Insurance indices led gainers up 1.4 and 1.2 per cent respectively following buying interests in Nigerian Breweries (+10.0 per cent) and Prestige (+8.0 per cent).
Similarly, the Oil & Gas index and Banking indices trailed, up 1.0 and 0.8 per cent respectively on the back of gains in Eterna Oil (+5.49 per cent) and Zenith bank(+1.78 per cent). On the flip side, sell pressures in Dangote Cement (-0.05 per cent) led to a -0.2 per cent decline in the Industrial Goods index.
Market breadth remained positive as 26 equities advanced while 16 others declined. Nigerian Breweries topped the gainers’ chart with 10 per cent to close at N82.50 per share. Caverton followed with a gain of 9.25 per cent to close at N2.48, Jaiz Bank rose by 8.93 per cent to close at 0.61 kobo, Prestige increased by 8 per cent to close at 0.54 kobo while Law Union garnered 7.84 per cent to close at 0.55 kobo.
On the other hand, Godlink Insurance led the losers’ chart with 9.43 per cent to close at 0.48 kobo per share. Custodian Investment was next with a loss of 6.87 per cent to close at N6.10, Africa Prudential lost 4.58 per cent to close at N4.17, Unity Bank shed 3.88 per cent to close at 0.99 kobo while Glaxosmithkline depreciated by 3.75 per cent to close at N11.55.
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