Equities market gains 0.13% to halt three-day profit taking

Amidst the decline in value turnover, the Nigerian Stock Exchange All-Share Index recorded a marginal gain of 0.13  per cent to halt the sentiment trading of the last three trading days, supported largely by improved buying interest in some banking stocks.

Consequently, the index strengthened by 32.69 basis points to berth at 25,936.24 basis points from 25,903.55 basis points  with corresponding market capitalisation that gained N11.26 billion to close at N8.94trillion.

Thursday’s positive close in the index was aided by gains in Zenith Bank that added 19.19 basis points, United Bank for Africa Plc increased by 14.78 basis points and Stanbic IBTC improved by 14.55 basis points which cancelled out the decline in Forte Oil that dropped by 24.99 basis points, Total Nigeria and Nigerian Breweries Plc down by 9.88 basis points and 7.15 basis points respectively.

Similarly, investors’ sentiment as measured by the advancer/decliner ratio of +0.03x closed positive with 20 stocks closing positive compared to 17 losers.

Guinness Nigeria, led gainers’ table, adding 258 kobo to close at N63.53 per share, followed by Moil Oil, which grabbed 99 kobo to close at N275.99 per share, Stanbic bank gained 50 kobo to close at N17.8 per share, Unilever Nigeria added 27 kobo to close at N34.00 per share, while Oando Oil increased by 22 kobo to closed at N4.78 among others.

Total Oil, led the decliners’ table with a loss of N10.00 to close at N268.00 per share, followed by Forte Oil, which shed 659 kobo to close at N61.07 per share, UACN depreciated by 51 kobo to close at N15.99 per share, Nigerian Breweries, dropped 31 kobo to close at N134.54 per share, while UAC-properties went down by 27 kobo to close at N2.61 per share, among others.

Continental Reinsurance emerged the most traded equity on Thursday with an exchange of 203.411 million shares worth N335.393 million. Followed by Standard Trust Assurance, having accounted for 20.001 million shares valued at N10.000 million; Zenith Bank recorded 18.674 million shares worth N290.962 million; Diamond Bank exchanged 11.860 million shares valued at N10.966 million while Fidelity Bank traded 11.215 million shares worth N9.994 million.

The Naira fell back to N305 levels against the Dollar at the interbank market today, after falling to a N315 yesterday.

However, the Naira shed -2.01per cent to N392 against the Pound and -0.57per cent to N329 against the Euro.

At the parallel market, the Naira remained flat at N498 against the Dollar, N615 against the Pound and N525 against the Euro.