By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Nigerian equities on Monday ended on a bullish note as all-share index (ASI) closed at 29,882.28 points, while market capitalisation climbed up by N106.65 billion to close at N 9.95 trillion.
With this development, current Year-to-Date (YTD) returns at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) stands at a negative 13.78 percent.
The rebound is coming despite sell-offs in defensive stocks which include oil marketing firm, Forte Oil Plc, brewer, Guinness Nigeria Plc, lender Zenith Bank Plc., according to the Cordros market update.
The report affirms that four (4) out of the five NSE Sectoral indices gained. “The Consumer Goods index had the most impressive performance with a 2.28 percent increase, while the Industrial Goods and Banking indices followed by 1.25 percent and 0.50 percent rise respectively,” the Cordros report added. While the Oil and Gas index recorded the least gain with 0.21 percent. On the contrary, the Insurance index was the only loser, with a loss 0.69 percent.
In terms of market breadth, the Nigerian bourse improved with 21 gainers and 22 losers. Dangote Sugar Plc led the gainers chart with a gain of 0.69 kobo; while insurer, AIICO Insurance Plc emerged top loser with a loss of 0.04 kobo.
Turnover at the NSE shows that volume traded decreased by 19.78 percent to 254.84 million shares, valued at N 3.25 billion and traded in 5,501 deals.
“The present market gain will likely continue tomorrow, as investors will take advantage of attractively priced blue-chips stocks,” the Cordros report affirmed.
