Bargain hunting for blue chips in the Consumer Goods and Industrial sectors drove the Nigerian Stock Exchange’s (NSE’s) all- share index (ASI) up by 1.21 percent to close at 29,311.25 points, while market capitalisation appreciated by N115.41 billion to close at N9.68 trillion.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!With this gain, Nigerian stocks halted its eight-day losing streak that saw the market lose 12.48 percent on aggregate, according to a Cordros market update.
The Nigerian equities market which recorded only its second gain in the month of December at the end of the session reported that four (4) out of the five (5) NSE Sectoral indices reflected the broader market’s positive performance.
According to Cordros in its report, the Oil/gas index once again performed poorly with a 1.07 percent loss. It said the Consumer Goods index emerged top gainers’ with a 3.85 percent growth, followed by the Industrial Goods index which climbed up by 2.45 percent. The Insurance and Banking indices also gained 1.41 percent and 0.18 percent respectively.
However, at the end transactions on the Nigerian bourse, market breadth ended on a negative note with 24 gainers and 28 losers. Foremost cement manufacturer, Lafarge Cement WAPCONigeria Plc, led the gainers chart with a gain of N4.82; while oil marketer, Conoil Plc emerged top losers with a loss of N4.79.
In terms of turnover, the Nigerian equities market declared that volume traded declined 37.24 percent to 302.41 million shares, valued at N3.7 billion and traded in 5,199 deals.
‘’We expect the gains to be short-lived as the only incentive to buy now (only for the long-sighted investors) remains the attraction of stocks’ prices at current levels,’’ the Cordros update affirmed.