After living with the bears for four consecutive trading sessions, the Nigerian stock market returned to the bulls’ territory on Wednesday following renewed buying pressure.
Data showed that the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited rebounded by 0.50 per cent after investors embarked on bargain-hunting across stock categories; small, mid and large-cap equities.
It was observed that 61 stocks closed in green and 15 stocks ended in red, indicating a positive market breadth index and strong investor sentiment.
Smart Products Nigeria, Omatek, International Energy Insurance, C&I Leasing and Thomas Wyatt all gained 10.00 per cent each to quote at 66 Kobo, 88 Kobo, N1.98, N5.06, and N1.87, respectively.
However, Deap Capital shed 9.09 per cent to trade at N1.00, John Holt slipped by 5.41 per cent to N7.00, Dangote Sugar depreciated by 5.32 per cent to N44.50, Universal Insurance lost 4.76 per cent to close at 60 Kobo, and Oando crashed by 4.73 per cent to N52.35.
At midweek, the volume of transactions, the value of trades, and the number of deals increased by 99.10 per cent, 7.97 per cent, and 1.94 per cent apiece.
This was because a total of 1.1 billion stocks valued at N12.2 billion exchanged hands in 21,964 deals during the session versus the 527.1 million stocks worth N11.3 billion traded in 21,546 deals a day earlier.
Royal Exchange sold 218.7 million shares for N229.1 million, Japaul transacted 174.1 million equities worth N473.4 million, Ellah Lakes exchanged 83.5 million stocks for N762.2 million, Wema Bank traded 71.1 million shares valued at N1.1 billion, and Chams sold 37.6 million equities worth N87.1 million.
Yesterday, the energy sector was down by 0.45 per cent due to sustained profit-taking in Oando, but this did not affect the outcome of the bourse due to gains recorded by the others.
The consumer goods index was up by 1.78 per cent, the insurance counter appreciated by 0.76 per cent, the industrial goods sector improved by 0.52 per cent, the banking space gained 0.19 per cent, and the commodity industry grew by 0.02 per cent.
As a result, the All-Share Index (ASI) chalked up 598.57 points to end at 120,339.90 points compared with the previous day’s 119,741.23 points and the market capitalisation advanced by N379 billion to N76.180 trillion from N75.801 trillion.