Yuletide rally lifts investors’ wealth by N436 billion

After a period of persistent sell pressures and volatility witnessed in the market, as well as the lingering political uncertainties surrounding Nigeria’s 2019 general election, the stock market witnessed a rally yesterday, as indices appreciated by N436 billion.

Indeed, expectations of sustained bargain-hunting and portfolio repositioning for year-end and possibilities that the development would form market performance was evident at the end of yesterday’s’ transactions.

Specifically, at the close of transactions yesterday, the All -share Index (ASI) was up by 1,193.37 absolute points, representing an increase of 3.88 per cent, to close at 31,967.01 points.
 
Similarly, market capitalisation increased by N436 billion to close at N11.677 trillion.The upturn was impacted by gains recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Nestle Nigeria, Seplat Petroleum Development Company, Dangote Cement, Stanbic IBTC Holdings and Forte Oil.

Analysts at Afrinvest Limited said: “we expect market performance to be positive in subsequent sessions till year end largely driven by portfolio re-balancing.”Market breadth closed positive, recorded 36 gainers against five losers. Dangote Sugar, Diamond Bank, Nestle Nigeria and Stanbic IBTC Holdings  recorded the highest price gain of 10 per cent, each to close at N15.40, N1.65, N1,617.10 and N50.60, in that order, while Seplat followed with a gain of 9.99 per cent to close at N642.90, per share.

Forte Oil appreciated by 9.84 per cent to close at N31.25, while Cement Company of Northern Nigeria (CCNN) up by 9.83 per cent to close at N19.55, per share. On the other hand, Guinea Insurance led the losers’ chart by eight per cent, to close at 23 kobo, per share. Tantalizer followed with a decline of 4.76 per cent to close at 20 kobo, while John Holt lost 2.22 per cent to close at 44 kobo, per share.

United Capital shed 2.08 per cent to close at N2.82, while Lafarge Africa depreciated by 0.79 per cent, to close at N12.50, per share. Total volume of trades increased by 269.45 per cent to 715.04 million units, valued at N5.19 billion and exchanged in 2,789 deals. Transactions in the shares of NEM Insurance topped the activity chart with 508.67 million shares valued at N1.5 billion. MedView Airline followed with 54.76 million shares worth N98.11 million, while Guaranty Trust Bank traded 26.02 million shares valued at N892.01 million.Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp) traded 19.36 million shares valued at N23.81 million, while Zenith Bank transacted 11.22 million shares worth N21.31 million.