Nigerian equity market extends gains, rises 1.4 0%

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) continued to rally on Wednesday, appreciating 1.4 per cent on the back of gains by NB, Zenith Bank, GTBank and some other blue-chip equities.

The All-Share Index gained 1.4 0 per cent to 2 4,143.3 7 points, while market capitalisation increased by ₦174.1 0bn to ₦12.58tn.

Meanwhile, the market has declined 10.05 per cent, weighed down by the significant drop in crude oil price and the coronavirus pandemic that crippled global economies.

The volume equities traded by investors rose 24.0 per cent to 426.6m units and value traded fell 3.5% to ₦4.1bn.

The most active stocks by volume were FBNH (9 1.9m units), ZENITH (6 3.4m units) and ACCESS (5 5.9m units) while GUARANTY (₦1.0bn), ZENITH (₦994.8m) and FBNH (₦448.1m) led the value chart.

Looking at performance across sectors, the Banking and Consumer Goods indices were the top gainers, up by 4.76% and 2.33% due to gains in NB (+10.00%), GUARANTY (+9.29%), GUINNESS(+8.29%) and ZENITH BANK (+6.4 0%).

Similarly, buy an interest in FIDSON (+4.3 5%) and REDSTAREX (+1.6 9%), drove the Healthcare and Services indices higher by 163bps and 147bps respectively. Lastly, Industrial Goods and Oil & Gas were up by 7 5bps and 5 1bps respectively on the back of price appreciation in ARDOVA (+9.8 4%), OANDO (+6.3 4%), WAPCO ( +4.2 1%) and DANGCEM ( +0.5 6%) Elsewhere, the Agriculture and ICT indices closed flat.