NSE sustains bullish trend with N45.29bn gain on first day in September

The equities market of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday closed the first trading day in September on a bullish trend with a growth of N45.26 billion.

Specifically, the market capitalisation which opened the month at N13.212 trillion appreciated by N45.29 billion to close at N13.258 trillion.

In the same vein, the All-Share Index grew by 86.82 basis points or 0.34 per cent to close at 25,413.95 basis points against 25,327.13 basis points achieved on Monday.

The sectoral performance was broadly positive, following gains in the Banking (+1.1 per cent), Consumer Goods (+0.9 per cent), and Insurance (+0.8 per cent) indices, and a loss in the Industrial Goods (-0.1 per cent) index. The Oil & Gas index was flat.

The growth was impacted by gains recorded in large and medium capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Nigerian Breweries, Stanbic IBTC, United Bank for Africa, UACN and Ecobank Transnational Incorporated.

Market sentiment, as measured by the market breadth, was positive with 27 stocks gaining, relative to nine losers.

Livestock Feeds recorded the highest price gain of 10 per cent, to close at 66k per share.

Eterna followed with a gain 9.47 per cent to close at N2.08, while Jaiz Bank rose by 8.93 per cent to close at 61k per share.

UACN Property Development Company gained 8.24 per cent to close at 92k, while Neimeth International appreciated by 7.53 per cent to close at N2 per share.

Conversely, Wapic Insurance led the losers’ chart in percentage terms, dropping 5.71 per cent to close at 33k per share.

Union Bank of Nigeria followed with 5.66 per cent to close at N5, while PZ Cussons Nigeria lost 2.38 per cent to close at N4.10 per share.

May and Baker dipped 2.33 per cent to close at N2.93, while FCMB Group shed 2.27 per cent to close at N2.15 per share.

Transactions in the shares of UACN Property Development Company (UPDC) topped the activity chart with 947.74 million shares valued at N663.67 million.

Access Bank followed with 22.70 million shares worth N144.99 million, while Guaranty Trust Bank traded 10.92 million shares valued at N279.42 million.

Fidelity Bank traded 8.47 million shares worth N14.83 million, while Lasaco Assurance transacted 8.07 million shares valued at N2.09 million.

In all, the volume of shares traded grew by 255.3 per cent with an exchange of 1.07 billion shares worth N2.10 billion traded in 3,221 deals.

This was in contrast with a total of 302.01 million shares valued at N2.63 billion achieved in 3,854 deals on Monday.

Analysts at Afrinvest Limited expected the soft gains to be sustained on the back of improved investor appetite.