Bullish Run Ignites Trading As ASI Recovers With A 0.49% Rise

Trading closed at the Nigerian equities market as Monday’s loss was reversed with investors interest in AIRTEL AFRICA (+4.4%) driving the ASI higher by 0.49% to close at 43,444.20 basis point. This reversal closed the bearish trend of the past five trading days in the Nigerian Stock Market(NGX).

 

Accordingly, the Week-to-Date, Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date continued their upward movements as 0.44%, 3.34% and 7.88% gains were achieved respectively, to reflect the optimism of investors who spotted profit opportunities in the market.

 

The total volume of trades increased by 44.4% to 423.83million units, valued at a market capitalization of N11.65billion and exchanged in 4,181 deals. This represented an appreciable growth from its previous daily record of 293.43million units valued at N4.29billion market cap.

 

FBNH was the most traded stock by volume at 223.58 million units sold, continuing from its dominant trade positions for the past three trading days, while NESTLE was the most traded stock by value at N5.64 billion. Investors believe that this momentum of buying and selling opportunities will continue throughout this week with FBNH, AIRTEL AFRICA, MTNN, and NESTLE. So expect more trading activities on the stocks of these blue-chip companies.

 

Continuing with the value analysis of trade recorded yesterday, the upward trajectory of trade volume can be attributed to the ongoing management drama caused by the arrest of Mr Nnamdi Okonkwo, the MD of FBNH and the recent cash inflow into AIRTEL AFRICA were responsible for this 171.60% rise in the value of stocks traded.

 

On sectors performance index, the oil & gas sector (-2.5%) and the Consumer Good (-0.4%) indices declined while the insurance (+0.4%) and banking (+0.1%) indices recorded gains. This reflected the confidence that traders have sustained in insurance stocks over the past week. However, the industrial Goods index continued to show no sign of motivation as it closed flat.

 

As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was mixed, as an equal number of companies, 17 each, gained and lost. CUTIX with +8.3% and CORNERST with +7.7% made the most significant gains of the day, while TOTAL with -10.0% and MBENEFIT with -6.9% topped the losers’ list. The challenge with MBENEFIT is that they have maintained their position in the losers’ chart for up to a week thereby causing consistent losses to investors equities market investment portfolio. Investors can only hope that the management of MBENEFIT turns things around.