Stock market rebounds with N74bn gain

Positive performance returned to the equity market on Thursday, following investors’ interest in stocks of BUA Cement, Zenith Bank and other top traders, making it the first gain of the week.

Specifically, the market capitalisation, which opened at N58.947 trillion, gained N74 billion or 0.13 per cent, to close at N59.021 trillion.

The All-Share Index also added 0.13 per cent or 131 points to settle at 104,387.47 from 104, 256.81 posted on Wednesday.

Investors interest in the shares of large and medium equities such as Transnational Corporation (Transcorp), Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO), Access Corporation (AccessCorp), Guinea Insurance and Guinness Nigeria Plc also pulled the market up.

Particularly, AccessCorp whose flagship subsidiary, Access Bank on Wednesday began the process of acquiring the entire issued share capital of National Bank of Kenya Ltd. (NBK) witnessed an increase in its share price by 2.83 per cent.

At the end of day’s trading session, the share price of AccessCorp, which opened at N22.95 gained 65k, to close at N23.60 per share.

AccessCorp which also sold 17.97 million shares valued at N413.02 million on Wednesday, traded 32.02 million shares worth N750.04 million on Thursday.

However, the market breadth closed negative with 29 equities on the laggard’s table and 22 others on the gainer’s table.

Deap Capital Management and Trust Plc led the loser’s table with a loss of 7k to close at 63k, followed by Tourist Company of Nigeria which declined by 28k to close at N2.56 per share.

Computer Warehouse Group (CWG) dropped 55k to close at N5.50, Caverton shed 15k to close at N1.60, Omatek lost 7k to close at 80k per share.

On the gainers table, Juli led by adding 65k to close at N7.15, Transcorp gained N1.35 to close at N14.90, while International Energy Insurance (IEI) rose by 14k to close at N1.59 per share.

E-Tranzact appreciated by 55k to close at N6.25 and Guinea Insurance grew by 3k to close at 39k per share.

Analysis of the market activities showed trade turnover was higher than the previous session, with the value of transactions up by 35.74 per cent.

A total of 336.82 million shares valued at N9.29 billion were exchanged in 8,790 deals compared to 298.65 million shares valued at N6.84 billion in 8,248 deals on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, United Bank of Africa (UBA) led the activity chart in volume and value with 63.88 million shares valued at N1.72 billion.

AccessCorp followed by 32.02 million shares worth N750.04 million.

Zenith Bank sold 21.77 million shares valued at N846.99 million, Transcorp traded 20.62 million shares worth N300.49 million and GTCO transacted 19.04 million shares valued at N894.62 million.