Wema Bank, AirtelAfrica move NGX on bullish note, index up 1.30%

The Nigerian equities on Friday recorded a strong rebound from the previous losses, following renewed investors’ interest in banks and telecommunication stocks.

Consequently, the market capitalisation gained N472 billion to close at N28.157 trillion from N27.685 trillion on Thursday.

During the week, rebounds in FBN Holdings, Airtel Africa, Zenith Bank and Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO) and International Breweries were major drivers of the positive performance.

The All-Share Index (ASI) at the Nigerian Exchange Ltd. (NGX) rose by 1.71 per cent to close at 52,215.12 points from 51,339.01 recorded on Thursday.

Also, the year-to-date gain rose to 22.24 per cent.

Furthermore, performance by sub-sector index was also on a bullish sentiment as the NGX Banking Index, NGX Insurance
Index, NGX Consumer Goods Index and the NGX Oil/Gas Index gained 0.10 per cent, 0.51 per cent, 0.33 per cent, 0.83 per cent and 0.06 per cent respectively.

However, the NGX Industrial Index went down by 1.87 per cent.

Analysis of today’s market activities showed trade turnover settled higher than the previous session, as the value of transactions increasing by 242.43 per cent.

A total of 190.10 million shares valued at N4.13 billion were exchanged in 3,893 deals.

Market breadth closed negative as 20 stocks appreciated against 22 that depreciated.

Wema Bank and Airtel Africa led the gainers’ chart in percentage terms by 10 per cent each to close at N3.74 and N1905.40 per share.

UPDC followed with a gain of 8.62 per cent to close at N1.26 while Champion Breweries rose by 8.45 per cent to close at N3.85 per share.

Prestige Insurance also went up by 7.89 per cent to close at 4k per share.

On the other hand, Fidson Pharmaceuticals and Northern Nigeria Flour Mills (NNFM) led the losers’ chart in percentage terms by 9.95 per cent each to close at N9.41 and N8.60 per share respectively.

Linkage Assurance shed 8.62 per cent to close at 53k per share.

Courtville Business Solution lost 7.84 per cent to close at 47k per share, while Honeywell Flour lost 7.41 per cent to close at N2.75 per share.