Equities market rebounds with N149bn gain as index up by 0.9%

Temitope Adebayo

Following the two previous days’ trading that recorded negative sentiments, the equities market of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) Thursday rebounded with investors gaining a whopping N149 billion.

Specifically, the NSE All-Share Index up 0.99 per cent to 29,352.13 points.

The most active stocks by volume were Access Bank (74.6million units), Zenith Bank (71.8million units) and WAPCO (40.7million units) while Zenith Bank (N1.6billion), Access Bank (N770.9million) and WAPCO (N629.9million) led by value.

Sector performance was impressive as only two indices lost.For instance, the Industrial Goods and Insurance Indices lost 1.5 per cent and 1.2 per cent respectively following sell-offs in BETA GLASS -1.5 per cent, CUTIX -4.9 per cent, MANSARD Insurance -0.9 per cent and LASACO Assurance -3.7 per cent.

Meanwhile, buying interest in Guaranty Trust Bank 1.7 per cent , Zenith Bank 2.1 per cent and MTN Nigeria 2.1 per cent buoyed performance in Banking Index which increased by 2.2 per cent and AFR-ICT Index by 1.2 per cent.

Similarly, the Consumer Goods and Oil & Gas Indices advanced 1.0 Per cent and 0.2 per cent respectively following gains in Unilever 4.4 per cent), Dangote Sugar 1.0 per cent and OANDO 2.7 per cent.

The top gainers were Livestock Feeds which went up by 10.0 per cent to close at N0.55, Forte Oil 8.4 per cent to close at N20.60. WAPCO rose by 6.3 per cent to close at N15.95 followed by Jaiz Bank which rose by 6.25 per cent to close at N0.68 and First Bank Nigeria Holding went up by 5.71 per cent to close at N7.40.BOC GAS, however, led losers table declining by -10.0 per cent to close at N4.95, CAVERTON slipped by -10.0 per cent to close at N2.62, while Cornerstone Insurance declined by -6.9 per cent to close at N0.54 followed by UACN declining by -6,54 per cent to close at N10.00 and BUA Cement lost -5.26 per cent to close at N36.00.