Equity market rebounds with N95bn gain

The Nigerian equity market recovered from the previous day’s loss with a N94.95bn gain on Wednesday, buoyed by an appreciation by Cocoa Processors, Oando, Computer Warehouse Group and 32 other stocks.

The market capitalisation and the All Share Index rose by 0.2 per cent to close at N56.22tn and 99,385.44 points, respectively.

The year-to-date return advanced to 32.9 per cent from 32.7 per cent.

Bullish activity dominated the day’s trade with the exchange recording 35 gainers and 13 losers.

The top gainers on the chart were FTN Cocoa Processors, Oando and Computer Warehouse Group which saw a 10 per cent increase to N1.54, N13.75 and N6.60, respectively.

The top losers were Secure Electronic Technology, which lost 10 per cent to close at N0.54, Cornerstone Insurance Company shed 8.64 per cent to close at N2.01 and Royal Exchange lost 7.58 per cent to N0.61.

Access Holdings had the most volume with 45.33 million traded shares, followed by AIICO Insurance with 23.96 million shares and Guaranty Trust Bank with 13.85 million shares.

Meanwhile, activity level waned as volume and value traded dipped 23.6 per cent and 33.2 per cent to 276.4 million units and N4.1tn, respectively.

Performance across sectors within sectors was upbeat as four indices gained while the Industrial Goods and Oil and Gas indices closed flat.

The banking and consumer goods indices rose 0.8 per cent and 0.3 per cent respectively, driven by price uptick in FBN Holdings, Zenith Bank, Unilever and Dangote Sugar.

Analysts at Afrinvest predicted that a positive performance to be sustained due to improved investor sentiment.

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