Nigerian Stock Market Displays Resilience, Rebounds by 0.98% – The Nigerian stock market rebounded by 0.98 percent on Wednesday after being pinned down for two consecutive days by bears due to profit-taking prompted by the recent FTSE Russell downgrade.
During the midweek session, investors reacted to UBA Plc and others’ positive earnings reports. The tier-one lender stunned investors with a 150 percent increase in its interim dividend payout, enticing speculators to purchase the company’s stock.
This contributed in part to the growth recorded by the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited yesterday, as the All-Share Index (ASI) closed higher by 654.20 points to 67,414.40 points from 66,760.20 points and the market capitalisation grew by N358 billion to N36.896 trillion from N36.538 trillion.
According to Financial Watch, the banking sector increased by 4.58 percent, the insurance market by 2.27 percent, the consumer goods index by 1.27 percent, and the energy and industrial goods indices by 0.12 percent and 0.03 percent, respectively.
The market breadth index was positive yesterday as the market closed with 34 price gainers and 24 price decliners, indicating bullish investor sentiment.
NASCON, Dangote Sugar, NAHCO, and United Capital all rose by 10.00 to N51.70, N57.20, N23.65, and N16.50, respectively, while Transcorp rose by 9.98% to N6.61.
Courteville was down 10% to close at 54 Kobo, ABC Transport was down 9.80% to 92 Kobo, Tantalizers was down 9.30% to 39 Kobo, Learn Africa was down 8.51% to N3.01, and Regency Alliance was down 8.33% to 33 Kobo.
Wednesday’s trading volume, value, and number of transactions all fell by 11.76 percent, 20.91 percent, and 20.37 percent, respectively, resulting in a negative activity chart.
During the session, 569.6 million shares valued at N8.7 billion were traded in 8,404 transactions, compared to 645.5 million shares sold for N11.0 billion in 10,554 transactions the previous day.
Oando was the most actively traded stock for the day, with 143.5 million units worth N1.4 billion changing hands, followed by Access Holdings with 63.6 million units worth N1.1 billion, Fidelity Bank with 39.6 million units worth N313.8 million, Transcorp with 32.6 million units worth N209.2 million, and UBA with 30.7 million units worth N464.8 million.