By Peter OBIORA and Kingsley OGUNWA InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The bulls on Tuesday maintained its hold on the Nigerian bourse as stocks extended their advance on sustained bargain hunting activity after the democracy day holiday in Nigeria.
At the close of the trading session on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), overall equities market performance measures, the NSE all-share index (ASI) and market capitalisation rose by 0.73 percent to close at 29,276.99 points.
“Today’s performance increases the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date gains to 13.66 percent and 8.94 percent respectively,” Cordros daily market update reported.
As equities continue to enjoy investors’ patronage, the Banking index recorded the largest gain climbing up 2.17 percent as investors demanded the shares of tier one lenders Zenith Bank Plc and Guaranty Trust Bank Plc both which appreciated by 1.93 percent and 1.47 percent apiece.
Likewise the Consumer Goods and Industrial Goods indices gained by 0.33 percent and 0.67 percent each to close higher, following demand for the shares of top tier beer producer, Nigerian Breweries Plc and Flour Mills Nigeria Plc both climbing up by 0.69 percent and 4.99 percent, while cement manufacturers, Lafarge Cement Wapco Nigeria Plc and Nigeria’s most capitalised listed company, Dangote Cement Plc appreciated by 1.16 percent and 0.18 percent apiece.
Conversely, the Oil & Gas index shed weight by 2.01 percent, as investors sold-off their share in first dual listed Nigerian oil and gas upstream firm, Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc and oil marketer, Oando Plc both lost by 5.00 percent and 1.22 percent, while the Insurance index closed flat.
Cordros reports that at the close of the trading session on the domestic bourse, market breadth remained positive, with 29 gainers and 17 losers recorded.
Insurer, Axa Mansard Insurance Plc emerged the top gainer with a gain of 0.18 kobo per share; while SEPLAT topped the losers table with a loss of N19.50 per share to close the trading session.
In terms of turnover, total volume traded increased to 832.52 million shares, valued at N7.59 billion, and exchanged in6, 259 deals.
“We expect gains to be sustained in the tomorrow’s session,” the Cordros update affirmed.
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