Equities market rebounds amid positive sentiment in Banking, Oil & Gas shares

Temitope Adebayo

Equities market of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday rallied by 0.13 per cent amid renewed positive investor sentiment in Banking and Oil & Gas stocks.

The NSE All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 34.40 absolute points, representing a decline of 0.13 per cent to close at 26,824.50 basis points from previous 26,790.10 basis points.

Similarly, the market capitalisation rose by N17 billion to close at N12.947 trillion compared to N12.930 trillion it closed o Wednesday.

Consequently, the Month-to-Date return increased to +1.78per cent while the Year-to-Date loss moderated to -14.65per cent.

The uptrend was impacted by gains recorded in large and medium capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Cadbury Nigeria, Glaxo Smithkline Consumer Nigeria, UAC of Nigeria (UACN), FBN Holdings and Oando.

Stocks as Access Bank, Zenith Bank, FBN Holdings and Oando were toast of investors, lifting the NSE Banking and NSE Oil and Gas sectored gauges higher by 0.65 per cent and 0.68 per cent respectively.

Market breadth closed positive, with 19 gainers versus 13 losers. Cadbury Nigeria recorded the highest price gain of 10 per cent, to close at N9.90, per share. Cutix followed with a gain 9.72 per cent to close at N1.58, while Glaxo Smithkline Consumer Nigeria rose by 9.65 per cent to close at N6.25, per share.

Union Diagnostic & Clinical Services went up by 9.09 per cent to close at 24 kobo, while UACN appreciated by 7.14 per cent to close at N7.50, per share.

On the other hand, C&I Leasing led the losers’ chart by 9.85 per cent, to close at N5.95, per share. Jaiz Bank followed with a decline of 8.70 per cent to close at 63 kobo, while Livestock Feeds lost 7.27 per cent to close at 51 kobo, per share.

Afromedia lost 5.56 per cent to close at 34 kobo, while Dangote Sugar Refinery shed 4.83 per cent each to close at N13.80, per share.

The total volume traded rose by 60.02 per cent to 303.82 million shares, worth N1.72 billion, and traded in 3,151 deals. Transactions in the shares of Law Union & Rock Insurance topped the activity chart with 151.70 million shares valued at N91.32 million.