By InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The bulls on Thursday returned to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) as all-share index (ASI) climbed up 0.63 percent to close at 24,964.63 points, while market capitalisation jumped by N53.44 billion to N8.56 trillion.
“Today’s gain cut the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date losses to 1.35 percent and 12.84 percent respectively,” Cordros daily market update affirmed.
The update says at the close of today’s trading, gains recorded in the shares of beermaker, Nigerian Breweries Plc and insurer, Law Union & Rock Insurance Plc by 4.06 percent and 4.00 percent apiece led to the Consumer Goods and Insurance indices closing in green by 1.57 percent and 0.07 percent respectively.
Similarly, the Banking sector increased by 0.68 percent, following positive investor interest in the share of Nigeria’s top tier lender, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc by 2.53 percent, Financial HoldCo, FBN Holdings Plc by 0.84 percent and mid-tier lender, Wema Bank Plc gaining 5.33 percent.
On the flip side, the Industrial Goods index declined by 0.92 percent, owing to price depreciation in the shares of cement producer, Lafarge Cement WAPCO Nigeria Plc by 4.96 percent, whose first quarter (Q1) 2016 earnings result was disappointing.
In the same vein, the Oil & Gas sector suffered a loss, due to sell-offs in the shares of oil marketing firms, Forte Oil Plc by 5.00 percent and Mobil Nigeria Plc by 4.65 percent.
At the close of the sessions trading, market breadth was negative, with 18 gainers and 22 losers posted, according to the NSE’s daily market statistics. Oil marketer, Total Nigeria Plc emerged the top gainer with a gain of N14.13 per share; while drugmaker, May & Baker Nigeria Plc topped the losers chart with a loss of 0.05 percent per share.
In terms of turnover, total volume traded on the Nigerian Equities Market rose by 18.57 percent to 338.34 million shares, valued at N2.00 billion, and traded in 3,428 deals.
“We expect investors to keep taking cue from corporate earnings releases filtering the market,” the Cordros update added.
