By InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)- Nigerian stocks on Thursday made a rebound on the gains of blue chip companies; recording an all-share index (ASI) gain of 0.25 percent to close at 28,811.39 points, while market capitalisation climbed up by N99.62 billion to close at N9.62trillion.
With this rebound, current Year-to-Date (YTD) returns at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) stands at a negative 16.87 percent compared to a negative 17.07 percent reported the previous session.
The blue chips that recorded an upward movement in their share prices include brewers, Nigerian Breweries Plc, Guinness Nigeria Plc and oil marketing firm Forte Oil Plc. The others are lender, Access Bank Plc, cement maker, Dangote Cement Plc and first listed Nigerian oil and gas upstream firm, Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc
According to Cordros market report, only two (2) out of the five (5) NSE Sectoral indices appreciated. “The Consumer Goods index took the lead on the gainers’ list with a 0.80 percent increase, while that of the Oil/Gas maintained its positive momentum for the second consecutive session with a 0.38 percent surge,” the report affirmed.
The report says contrary to the above, the Industrial Goods index recorded the worst performance as it declined by 1.75 percent, after being the only gainer in the previous session. And the Banking and Insurance indices followed with 1.35 percent and 0.02 percent decline respectively.
In terms of market breadth, the Nigerian equities market closed negative at the end of the session with 21 gainers and 23 losers. Food and beverages, real estate, paint and logistics company, UAC of Nigeria Plc (UACN) emerged top gainer with a gain of N1.65. While cement manufacturer, Lafarge Cement WAPCO Plc topped the losers table with a loss of N4.00.
Turnover shows that volume traded dipped by 43.07% to 278.19 million shares valued at N3.17billion and traded in 4,731 deals.
“This gain may be repeated in tomorrow session, as investors take more position in defensive stocks,” the Cordros report affirmed.
