By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Bearish momentum was short-lived on Wednesday at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) as gains recorded in financial services stocks inched up all-share index (ASI) by 0.16 percent to close at 30,359.47 basis points, while market capitalisation grew by N16.39 billion to N10.43 trillion.
“Today’s gain increased the Month-to-Date gain to 2.27 percent and retained the Year-to-Date loss at 12.40 percent,” Cordros daily market update affirmed.
The update says three (3) of the five (5) NSE sectoral indices gained, according to the report, the Banking index added 1.53 percent following gains in the shares of lenders Wema Bank Plc by 4.21 percent, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc by 3.72 percent, Zenith Bank Plc with 2.78 percent and Guaranty Trust Bank Plc 2.17 percent amongst others.
According to Cordros, the Oil/Gas index followed suit with a 0.33 percent gain following increments in the shares of integrated energy company, Eterna Plc with 9.41 percent, oil marketers, Total Nigeria Plc and Mobil Oil Nigeria with 4.44 percent and 1.75 percent respectively.
Similarly, the Industrial index inched up marginally 0.01 percent, on the contrary, the Consumer Goods and Insurance indices reported losses of 0.40 percent and 0.20 percent respectively.
At the close of the day’s trading on the Nigerian bourse, market breadth posted a positive outlook with 26 gainers and 21 losers, according to the NSE’s daily market statistics.
Producer and seller of lubricating oils, Eterna emerged top gainer with a gain of 0.16 kobo per share; while Nigeria’s mid-tier lender, Unity Bank Plc topped the losers chart with a loss of 0.11 kobo per share to close the session.
In terms of turnover, volume traded on the Nigerian equities market dropped by 58.96 percent to N169.86 million shares, valued at N3.5 billion and traded in 3,512 deals.
“We expect the market to decline in the coming session as investors’ trade cautiously,” the Cordros update affirmed.
