Nigerian bourse closes flat Thursday

The equities market of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed nearly flat in Thursday’s session, with the All-Share Index (ASI) inching lower marginally by 0.01 per cent to 40,752.83 points.

The Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns dipped marginally to -1.81 per cent and 6.56 per cent, respectively.

The Consumer Goods index (+0.78%) was the sole gainer among major sectoral indices, following interest in UNILEVER (+3.58%) and NB (+0.11%) shares.

On the flip side, the Insurance (-0.49%), Industrial Goods (-0.44%), Banking (-0.32%), and Oil & Gas (-0.21%) indices posted negative returns, owing to profit-taking in the shares of CONTINSURE (-3.97%), WAPCO (-0.94%), ZENITHBANK (-0.18%), and FO (-0.31%) respectively.

Market breadth turned negative, with 26 gainers and 14 losers, led by NPFMCRFBK (-8.91%) and OANDO (+5.17%) respectively. Total volume and value of trades increased by 7.75% and 35.99% to 378 million units and NGN6.26 billion, respectively, exchanged in 4,780 deals.

Analysing the market, analysts at Cordros Capital say: “Our medium-to-long-term outlook for risky assets remains positive, amidst still-positive macroeconomic fundamentals”.