Nigerian equity market extends gain by 0.8%

Bargain-hunting in bellwether stocks helped the Nigerian equity market to extend gain to the second consecutive trading sessions as it appreciated 0.8 per cent on Thursday.

The All-Share Index (ASI) rose 77bps to close at 23,892.92 points due to buying interest in Dangote Cement (1.7 per cent), Nestle (4.0 per cent) and GTBank (2.6 per cent), market capitalisation was higher by ₦84.9 billion to ₦12.4trillion, taking the market year to date loss to -11.0 per cent.

Fidson (9.62 per cent) emerged as the top gainer of 18 advancers, while Custodian (-9.52 per cent) emerged as the top loser among 13 other decliners.

The volume and value of stocks investors exchanged were higher by 14.8 per cent and 51.2 per cent to 182.7 million units and ₦2.3 billion respectively.

Zenith Bank (27.3 million units), GTBank (24.6 million units) and FBNH (18.8 million units) were the most active stocks, while GTBank (₦540.7billion), Nestle (₦445.2 billion) and Zenith Bank (₦413.3 billion) attracted the highest value.

The Consumer Goods index led gainers, up 1.5 per cent following bargain hunting in Nestle (4.0 per cent), the Banking and Industrial Goods indices appreciated 1.4 per cent and 0.3 per cent respectively due to buying interest in GTBank (2.6 per cent), Zenith Bank (2.0 per cent) and Dangote Cement (1.7 per cent).

Price uptick in MTNN (0.2 per cent) drove the AFR-ICT index higher by 0.1 per cent. Conversely, the Insurance index was the lone laggard, down 1.9 per cent as a result of sell-offs in CUSTODIAN (-9.5 per cent), NEM (-7.4 per cent) and AIICO (-7.5 per cent).