Equities market opens week with N114bn gain

The equities market kick-off the week with a gain of N114 billion as investors position in Dangote Cement Plc and Guaranty Trust Bank Plc shares.

Dangote Cement appreciated 1.20 per cent or N2.00 to close on Monday at N169.00 from N167.00 closed on Friday while Guaranty Trust Bank gained 4.50 per cent or N1.06 from N23.54 to N24.60.

With the gain in both companies, The Nigerian Stock Exchange All-Share Index (NSE ASI) appreciated by 1.25 per cent or 328.83 basis points to 26,580.22 basis points on Monday from 26,251.39 basis points it closed on Friday.

Similarly, market capitalisation of the equities market also increased by N114 billion from N9.032trillion to N9.146 trillion.

The equities had closed on a first trading wee of 2017 negative as investors continued to take profit.

A group of analysts at Meristem Securities said the NSE ASI witnessed a breather today after four days of consecutive losses witnessed in the first trading week of the year.

“We attribute this rebound to bullish activities on some stocks trading at low prices.

“We expect the rest of the week to be swayed by mixed investors’ sentiments, possibly skewed more towards bargain-hunting.”

Market statistics showed investor sentiments turned positive as market breadth closed with 20 gainers against 16 losers.

UCAP for the second consecutive trading session, led the advancing stocks by 9.60 per cent to close at N3.31 per share, followed by FCMB with an increase of 9.40 per cent to close at N1.28 per share. Fidelity Bank grew 8.43 per cent to close at 90 kobo per share while Sterling Bank appreciated 7.14 per cent to close at 75 kobo per share.

On the losers side Cadbury, 7up descended by five per cent to close at N122.55, Ashaka Cement dropped 4.99 per cent to close at N10.86 per share, Cadbury fell 4.95 per cent to close at 9.03 per share.

Capital Hotel depreciated by 4.86 per cent to close at N3.33 per share and Nigerian Aviation Handling Company of Nigeria (NAHCO) completed the list of top five declining stocks to close at N2.59 following a decline of 4.78 per cent.

A cumulative overview of the day’s transactions show that investors in 3,423 deals traded 219 million units of shares valued at N1.4 billion.

Banking stocks retained their positions at the top of activity chart, as Fidelity Bank emerged the topmost traded stock with 33.9 million shares worth N30.2 million. Access Bank followed with 29.2 million shares worth N189.7 million while UCAP was next with 19.7 million shares amounting to N64.6 million.

FBN Holdings came fourth on the day’s activity chart having traded 16.8 million units of shares valued at N59.9 million while UBA was fifth with 15.8 million shares worth N77.2 million.