Oando Plc Drives Equities Trading Upward As NGX ASI Closes At N16.5 Billion

Trading at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NGX) began the week positively, driven by continued investors’ demand for FBNH (+6.5%) and ZENITH BANK (+1.3%) shares.

Consequently, All Share Index benefited from this new demand as it increased by 0.14% to close at 43,260.13 points.

Accordingly, the Week-to-Date, Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date gains experienced from last week's trading increased to 0.14%, +2.9%, and +7.4%, respectively.

Furthermore, the growth of 405.72% from its Friday figure of N3.3 Billion, pushed the market capitalization to close at N22.6 billion.

The total volume of trades increased by 1103.9% to 2.40 billion units, valued at N16.45 billion, and exchanged in 4,811 deals. OANDO PLC was the most traded stock by volume and value at 1.97 billion units and N11.83 billion, respectively.

This growth not experienced this month represented exactly 71.87% and 82.14% of the value and volume market share of trades made.

Our equity market analyst believes that this strong attention to buy/sell OANDO PLC shares may be connected to any proposed release of audited financial report or reasons still under investigation.

He however speculated that market interest will be directed strongly to FLOUR MILLS OF NIGERIA PLC and HONEYWELL FLOUR MILLS following the proposed takeover deal.

On sector-to-equities market analysis, the outcome was mixed as the oil and gas (+1.3%), insurance (+0.9%), and banking (+0.8%) indices recorded gains, while the industrial goods (-0.1%) index declined. The consumer goods index closed flat.

However, investors will expect the industrial sector to record gains this week especially with the proposed acquisition of majority stake in HONEYFLOUR by FLOUR MILLS OF NIGERIA PLC.

As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive as 18 companies gained relative to 13 losers. HONEYFLOUR (+9.7%), NEM (+7.9%), FBNH (6.49%), OANDO (+5.97%), and CHAMPION (+3.83%) topped the gainers’ list, while FTNCOCOA (-9.1%), UNIVINSURE (-4.8%), NPFMCRFBK (-4.44%), NGXGROUP (-4.08%), and CUTIX (-3.43%) recorded the most significant losses.