Investors’ appetite for bank shares drive Nigerian stocks higher

Nigerian equities rose marginally Thursday with a 0.10 per cent progress by the benchmark index, extending the uptrend in the market to its third straight day.

The climb owed its debt to traders’ blossoming interest in banks’ stocks, which constituted more than a third of the overall gain, with Zenith leading the pack. Consumer goods equities like Vitafoam and Unilever significantly contributed also.

The banking Index, the highest mover of the five sector indexes tracked by the exchange, strengthened 0.52 per cent to 358.44 index points, touching its peak in almost a fortnight.

Analysts at Afrinvest see traders’ effort to reap profit capping the week’s gain on Friday.

“In the last trading session of the week, we suspect that profit-taking may dominate the local bourse,” the investment bank said.

The market posted a positive breadth as 19 gainers emerged against 15 losers. The 71 other stocks that traded in Thursday’s session saw no movement in price.

The all-share index was up by 39.15 basis points at 39,210.10, just as market capitalisation expanded by N20.4 billion to N20.437 trillion.

Nigerians stocks are down by 2.63 per cent so far this year.

TOP FIVE GAINERS

Linkage Assurance topped the gainers’ chart, appreciating by 9.09 per cent to close at N0.60. PZ added 7.14 per cent to end today’s trade at N6. May & Baker advanced by 5 per cent to N4.20. Chams rose to N0.21, notching up 5 per cent. African Alliance Insurance completed the top 5, climbing up by 4.96 to N12.70.

TOP FIVE LOSERS

CWG led laggards, declining by 9.60 to close at N1.13. Consolidated Hallmark shed 8.97 per cent to end today’s trade at N0.71. ABC Transport fell to N0.37, losing 7.50 per cent. WAPIC slumped to N0.55, recording 6.78 per cent depreciation. Mutual Benefits closed at N0.43, going down by 6.52 per cent.

TOP 5 TRADES

A total of 158.366 million shares valued at N2.236 billion were traded in 3,330 deals.

Zenith was the most active stock with 27.324 million units of its shares worth N629.221 million exchanging hands in 369 deals. Transcorp traded 22.023 million shares priced at N35.087 million in 152 transactions. UBA had 21.687 million shares valued at N154.235 million traded in 241 deals. Transcorp traded 9.154 million shares estimated at N8.154 million in 43 transactions. Chams traded 8.320 million shares valued at N1.679 million in 9 deals.