Stock Market Halts Losing Streak, Up By N10bn

Snapping seven consecutive sessions of losses, the domestic stock market yesterday posted a N10 billion rebound as investors interest in Lafarge Africa and 11 others drove the market’s recovery.

Also, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), at its second meeting of the year, voted to raise the MPR further by 50bps to 18.0 per cent; retain the asymmetric corridor of +100/-700bps around the MPR; retain the CRR at 32.5 per cent; and retain the Liquidity Ratio at 30.0 per cent.

The All-Share Index (ASI) rose by 18.64 absolute points, representing a gain of 0.03 per cent to close at 54,904.68 points. Accordingly, investors gained N10 billion in value as market capitalisation went up to N29.910 trillion.

The upturn was impacted by gains recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Lafarge Africa, Zenith Bank, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Champion Breweries and. Nigerian Exchange Group.

As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was mixed, as an equal number of stocks (12) gained and lost. Linkage Assurance recorded the highest price gain of 9.76 per cent to close at 45 kobo, per share. Wapic Insurance followed with a gain 7.89 per cent to close at 41 kobo, while Champion Breweries rose by 4.26 per cent to close at N4.90, per share.

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Sterling Bank went up by 2.67 per cent to close at N1.54, while Jaiz Bank appreciated by 2.30 per cent to close at 89 kobo, per share. On the other hand, Ikeja Hotel led the losers’ chart by 9.65 per cent to close at N1.03, per share. Cadbury Nigeria followed with a decline of 5.83 per cent to close at N11.30, while University Press went down by 4.76 to close at N2.00, per share.

International Breweries lost 4.30 per cent to close at N4.45, while Regency Alliance Insurance shed 3.45 per cent to close at 28 kobo, per share.

The total volume traded decreased by 89.1 per cent to 127.745 million units, valued at N1.587 billion, and exchanged in 2,987 deals. Transactions in the shares of United Bank for Africa (UBA) topped the activity chart with 19.601 million shares valued at N157.245 million.

Transnational Corporation (Transcorp) followed with 13.804 million shares worth N17.680 million, while Fidelity Bank traded 12.739 million shares valued at N65.668 million.

Zenith Bank traded 11.854 million shares valued at N296.061 million, while Guaranty Trust Holding Company transacted 10.472 million shares worth N258.239 million.