Investors’ appetite for high cap stocks lifts NSE’s index by 0.25%

Nigerian Stock ExchaNge (NSE)

By Helen Oji
Investors’ renewed appetite for some highly capitalised stocks lifted transaction on the trading of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), yesterday, as the All Share Index (ASI) rose 0.25 per cent.

Specifically, at close of transactions, ASI rose by 66.38 absolute points, representing an increase of 0.25 per cent, to close at 26,310.77 points. Similarly, market capitalisation increased by N32 billion to close at N12.808 trillion.

The upturn was impacted by gains recorded in large and medium capitalised stocks, amongst which were, Dangote Cement, UAC of Nigeria (UACN), Access Bank, University Press, and MTN Nigeria.

Analysts at Afrinvest Limited, said: “We maintain our bearish outlook for the rest of the week in the absence of any major market drivers. However, we see opportunities for bargain hunting in stocks with sound fundamentals.”Investdata Consulting Limited urged discerning investors to leverage the low stock prices and the marginal appreciation to patronise fundamentally good stocks.

“Discerning investors should latch onto this, meanwhile, as a way of averaging down and recouping their investment immediately a recovery stage sets in, helped by economic policies, when things start to change gradually.“In the process, equity prices will be influenced positively, while investors watch for sectors like insurance, banking, Industrial Goods, services, as well as oil/gas that have become defensive in recent times and could go bullish in no distant time.”

However, despite the increases in indices, market breadth closed negative, recorded eight gainers against 11 losers. University Press led the gainers table with 10 per cent to close at N1.21 per share.Law Union & Rock Insurance followed with 8.89 per cent to close at 49 kobo, and UACN 7.50 per cent to close at N6.45, per share.

Dangote Cement garnered 2.05 per cent to close at N149, and Access Bank 2.04 per cent, to close at N7.50, per share, respectively.On the other hand, Afromedia led the laggards’ table with 9.76 per cent to close at 37 kobo per share. Flour Mills of Nigeria followed with 9.68 per cent to close at N14, while Wema Bank shed 6.67 per cent to close at 56 kobo, per share.
 
Lafarge Africa dipped by 6.62 per cent to close at N13.40, and Unity Bank 6.35 per cent to close at 59 kobo, per share.Also, total volume traded fell 47.70 per cent to 156.85 million shares valued at N1.81 billion, exchanged in 3,088 deals. Transactions in the shares of Multiverse Mining and Exploration topped the activity chart with 25 million shares valued at N5 billion. Sterling Bank traded 19.45 million shares worth N38.36 billion, and    Access Bank transacted 18.71 million shares at N139.79 million.Zenith Bank traded 14.50 million shares worth N245.83 million, while United Bank for Africa (UBA) traded 11.03 million shares valued at N63.44 million.