Bulls maintain dominance as NSE Index surges by 2.46%

The bulls remained dominant in the equities market as the All-Share Index (ASI) of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) surged by 2.46 per cent on Wednesday, largest gain since the spring of the January-rally on January 11th — to 37,854.92 points, amidst a broader bargain hunting across major sectors.

Accordingly, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date losses moderated further to -0.66 per cent and 1.02 per cent respectively.

The Industrial Goods (+3.21%), Consumer Goods (+2.70%), and Insurance (+0.24%) indices joined the Banking (+3.19%) index to close in the green, while returns in the Oil & Gas (-0.356%) index turned negative. Notable stocks include DANGCEM (+2.24%), NB (+5.00%), WAPIC (+4.26%), FBNH (+4.76%), and TOTAL (-4.31%), respectively.

Market breadth turned positive, with 39 gainers and 15 losers, led by OANDO (+9.84%) and HMARKINS (-6.67%) respectively. Total volume of trades increased by 8.03 per cent to 339.68 million units, valued at NGN5.96 billion (-15.20%), and exchanged in 4,436 deals.

Analysts at Cordros Capital, “gains are likely to extend on the bourse, following the elongated bearish run of the market which ended last week. More so, still-strengthened macroeconomic fundamentals and attractive prices of value stocks remain supportive of gains”.