Equities market gains N66bn on Seplat, GTBank

By Kayode Tokede

Trading activities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) equities market advanced further by N66 billion to extend gaining streak to two consecutive sessions.

Specifically, the market capitalisation which opened at N21.158 trillion inched higher by N66 billion or 0.31 per cent to close at N21.224 trillion.

Also, the All-Share Index gained 125.70 basis points or 0.31 per cent to close at 40,590.85 from 40,465.15 achieved on Wednesday.

• Sector performances were broadly positive today with the Oil & Gas (+5.65 per cent), Consumer Goods (+0.75 per cent), Banking (+0.53 per cent) and Industrial (+0.05 per cent) sectors all closing in the green.

The price rally was driven by gains posted by Seplat and 26 other equities.

The uptrend was also driven by price appreciation in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which were; Seplat, Nigerian Breweries Plc, Ardova Plc, Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc  and Guaranty Trust Bank Plc (GTBank).

Market breadth was positive with 27 stocks in contrast with 14 losers.

FTN Cocoa Processors, Livestock Feeds and Seplat led the gainers chart in percentage terms 10 per cent each to close at 66k, N1.65 and N451 per share, respectively.

Ardova followed with a gain 9.96 per cent to close at N14.90, while Japaul Gold and Ventures rose by 9.88 per cent to close at 89k per share.

Conversely, Sovereign Trust Insurance led the losers’ chart by 9.09 per cent to close at 20k per share.

Courteville Business Solutions followed with 8.70 per cent to close at 21k, while Lasaco Assurance shed 7.89 per cent to close at 35k per share.

Unilever lost 6.47 per cent to close at N13, while Sterling Bank depreciated by 4.39 per cent to close at N1.96 per share.

Transactions in the shares of Champion Breweries topped the activity chart with 1.91 billion shares worth N4.95 billion.

United Bank for Africa followed with 26.49 million shares worth N228.45 million, while Dangote Sugar Refinery traded 21.47 million shares valued  N397.85 million.

Fidelity Bank traded 15.71 million shares worth N39.75 million, while Access Bank transacted 13.29 million shares valued N117.05 million.

In all, the total volume of shares traded increased significantly by 755.0 per cent with an exchange of 2.13 billion shares valued at N7.51 billion exchanged in 4,558 deals.

This was in contrast with a turnover of 249.55 million shares worth N2.18 billion achieved in 6,090 deals on Wednesday.

“The equities market closed up today due to the gains recorded in major sectors.

“Going forward, we expect investor’s sentiments to be swayed by the search for real positive returns amidst a low interest-rate environment.

“Nonetheless, we reiterate that this may be a great period to pick up some quality names with a medium to long-term investment horizon,” analysts at InvestmentOne Research added.