By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday halted a four-day losing streak as all-share index (ASI) gained 0.67 percent to close at 24,042.73 basis points, while market capitalisation jumped by N54.84 billion to N8.27 trillion.
Today’s gain is coming on the heels of slight rebound in the Banking sector, increasing the Month-to-Date (M-t-D) gains to 0.53 percent and pared the Year-to-Date (Y-t-D) losses to 16.06 percent, according to Cordros daily market update.
The update reported that the Banking, Oil and Gas and Industrial Goods indices closed higher by 1.28 percent, 0.79 percent and 0.43 percent respectively and boosted by price increases in the shares of Nigeria’s top tier lender, Zenith Bank Plc 2.02 percent, Nigeria’s first dual listed oil and gas upstream firm, Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc 3.77 percent and Nigeria’s most capitalised quoted company and cement producer, Dangote Cement Plc 0.75 percent.
Similarly, the Consumer Goods index climbed up by 0.28 percent following the positive performance in the shares of food and beverage manufacturer, Nestle Nigeria Plc and soap and detergent producer, Unilever Nigeria Plc by 2.14 percent and 4.33 percent respectively.
On the contrary, the Insurance sector declined 0.29 percent; owing to losses in the shares of insurer, AIICO Insurance Plc which succumbed by 4.94 percent.
At the close of today’s trading on the local bourse, market breadth turned positive, with 21 gainers and 19 losers, according to the NSE’s daily market statistics. Brewer, Champion Breweries Plc emerged the top gainer with a gain of 0.25 kobo per share; while Nigeria’s mid-tier lender, Unity Bank Plc topped the losers chart with a loss of 0.04 kobo per share to close the day.
In terms of turnover, total volume traded modestly on the Nigerian equities market expanded by 0.79 percent to 271.62 million shares valued at N1.54 billion in 3,360 deals.
“In the absence of a major catalyst on the horizon, we do not anticipate significant activity in tomorrow’s session,” the Cordros update added.
