By InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Nigerian equities market on Thursday remained upbeat, as the benchmark index rose by 0.19 percent to close at 27,574.09 points following a rally in the Oil & Gas index.
“Today’s activities further cut the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date losses to 0.09 percent and 3.73 percent respectively, Cordros daily market update affirmed.
According to the report, at the close the session’s trading on the Nigerian bourse, the Consumer Goods and Oil & Gas indices appreciated by 0.97 percent and 0.58 percent apiece, following positive interest in the shares of soap and detergent producer, PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc and Nigeria’s brewing giant, Nigerian Breweries Plc both gaining 2.05 percent and 1.64 percent each. While, oil marketer, Conoil Plc and first dual listed Nigerian oil and gas upstream firm, Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc both climbed up by 4.96 percent and 1.50 percent respectively.
Cordros reports that similarly, the Insurance index closed higher by 0.32 percent, benefitted from gains in the shares of AIICO Insurance Plc by 4.84 percent and reinsurer, Continental Reinsurance Plc up by 1.01 percent.
On the flipside, the Banking index declined 0.23 percent, on the back of price decrease in the shares of pan-African lender, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, United Bank for Africa Plc and financial HoldCo, FBN Holdings Plc all dropping 1.37 percent, 4.14 percent and 0.33 percent each. Also, the report says the Industrial Goods index traded flat.
At the close of the session’s trading on the domestic bourse, market breadth was positive, with 23 gainers and 11 losers, according to data obtained from the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) daily market statistics.
Conoil emerged the top gainer with a gain of N1.02 per share; while construction giant, Julius Berger Nigeria Plc topped the losers chart with a loss of N4.25 per share to close the trading session.
In terms of turnover, total volume traded on the Nigerian equities market dropped by 17.91 percent to 242.74 million shares, valued at N1.74 billion, and traded in 3,067 deals.
“We expect sentiments to reverse in tomorrow’s session,” the Cordros update added.
