Nigerian stock market grows by 3.88%, ahead of Yuletide

Few hours to Christmas, activities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) opened for the week on Monday on a bullish trend following massive gains.

Our correspondent reports that contrary to expectations, the All-Share Index closed trading for Yuletide with 3.88 per cent growth to close at 31,967.01 against 30,773.64 recorded on Friday.

Similarly, the market capitalisation inched N436 billion or 3.88 per cent to close at N11.676 trillion compared with N11.240 trillion achieved on Friday.

Analysts at InvestData Ltd. attributed the development to prevailing cheap prices of stocks that triggered investors’ sentiments for short and long term gains.

“We expect the overall market sentiment to remain mixed with rekindled buying interest on blue chip stocks that had suffered huge losses before now, with strong earnings capacity that is trending up.

“The prevailing cheap prices of stocks may trigger investor-buying sentiments for short and long term gains.

“We expect speculative trading on major stocks with strong potential upside to shape the breadth of market performance this week, while watching the political space, since Q3 numbers have given insights into what the expected Q3 GDP and full year company earnings power will be,” the analysts said.

A breakdown of the activity chart shows that the market recorded 36 gainers and five losers.

Nestle led the gainers’ table during the day, gaining N147 to close at N1,617.10 per share.

Seplat followed with N58.40 to close at N642.90, while Dangote Cement gained N7 to close at N194 per share.

Conversely, Lafarge Africa topped the laggards’ table with a loss of 10k to close at N12.50 per share.

United Capital trailed with a loss of 6k to close at N2.82, while Guinea Insurance was down by 2k to close at 23k.

Tantalizer dipped 1k to close at 20k, while John Holt shed 1k to close at 44k per share.

In the same vein, the volume of shares traded inched 269.45 per cent, while valued of shares appreciated by 41.42 per cent.

Specifically, investors bought and sold 715.04 million shares valued at N5.19 billion in 2,789 deals.

This was in contrast to a turnover of 193.54 million shares worth N3.67 billion transacted in 2,922 deals on Friday.

NEM Insurance was the most active stock during the day, exchanging 508.665 million shares valued at N1.5 billion.

Medview Air followed with an account of 54.76 million shares worth N98.11 million, while Guaranty Trust Bank traded 26.02 million shares valued at N892.01 million.

Transcorp sold 19.36 million shares worth N23.81 million, while Zenith Bank traded 9.49 million shares valued at N218.77 million.

Our correspondent reports that the stock market will be closed for two days to mark Christmas and Boxing Day holidays. It will reopen on Dec. 27.