Equities market opens with marginal growth of 0.01%

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) began this week with a marginally gain of 0.01 per cent on Monday to extend uptrend to the fourth day in a row.

Leading indicator, the All-Share Index (ASI) rose by 2.21 basis points to 25,743.03 points from 25,740.83 basis points it closed on Friday.

Sector performance, as measured by the NSE indices, showed that NSE Oil & gas Index gained 3.67 per cent while the NSE Industrial Index, NSE Insurance and NSE Banking recorded respective declines of 1.45per cent, 1.16per cent and 0.57per cent.

The upturn was largely boosted by value appreciation recorded in some large capitalised stocks, amongst which are, Forte Oil Plc, Total Nigeria Plc, Nigerian Breweries Plc, CAP Plc and Oando Plc.

Analysts said “trading activities in the bourse mirrored the activities in the previous week, as we saw investors’ continued rally on the Oil & Gas stocks. We foresee this trend may continue, while we do not rule out the possibility of profit taking on some Oil & Gas counters.”

They noted that the market still comprises largely retail investors who are more interested in short term profit taking which accounts for the high volatility in the market.

They also noted that with the Monday market performance following the decline in market breadth and volume of transaction, the stock market today may likely closed on a decline.

Market breadth was negative, with 17 gainers versus 23 losers. Forte Oil recorded the highest price gain of 10.24 per cent, to close at N71.94 per share. Total gained 10.11 per cent to close at N276.15, while Oando appreciated by 7.80 per cent to close at N4.70 per share.

Transcorp went up by 7.04 per cent to close at 76 kobo, while Portland Paints appreciated by 4.97 per cent to close at N1.90 per share.

On the other hand, Guinness led the losers’ chart by 9.74 per cent, to close at N80.33 per share. Vitafoam shed five per cent to close at N2.28, while Redstar Express declined by 4.94 per cent to close at N4.23 per share.

Mansard Insurance depreciated by 4.65 per cent to close at N1.64 and Neimeth declined by 4.55 per cent each to close at 63. Kobo per share.

Meanwhile, the total volume traded went down by 69.65 per cent to 175.06 million shares, valued at N3.14 billion, and traded in 3,048 deals.

Transactions in the shares of Zenith Bank topped the activity chart with 29.52 million shares valued at N421.04 million. Wapic insurance followed with 15.3 million shares worth N7.65 million, while Guaranty Trust Bank traded 14.93 million shares valued at N343.03 million.

FBN Holdings traded 14.38 million shares worth N45.78 million, while FCMB sold 13.61 million shared valued N13.58 million.