By Ifeyinwa Ezeokoli
Bullish sentiments persisted in the local bourse on Wednesday as bargain-hunting pushed up shares of Nigerian Breweries Plc by (+9.6 percent) and GTCO by (+4.2 percent) triggering a 0.31 percent growth in the market index.
Also, the All-Share Index rose by 161.53 points, representing a gain of 0.31 percent, to close at 52,580.86 points.
Accordingly, the market capitalization rose by N88 billion to close at N28.631 trillion.
Consequently, the month-to-date and year-to-date returns settled at +0.3 percent and +2.6 percent, respectively.
The market’s negative performance was driven by price depreciation in large and medium-capitalized stocks, which are Nigerian Breweries, MRS Oil Nigeria, Cadbury Nigeria, Vitafoam Nigeria, and GTCO.
Analysts at GTI Securities Limited said “the Nigerian Stock Market continued its positive dominance in the face of a worrisome inflation rate of 22.22 percent.
“We expect this strain to continue as investors focus on fundamentally sound companies, dividend payments, and impressive first-quarter (Q1) 2023 results.”
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive, as 29 stocks gained relative to 18 losers.
MRS Oil drove the gainers’ chart in percentage terms by 9.93 percent to close at N37.10 per share.
Nigerian Breweries followed with 9.63 percent to close at N38.70, and Cornerstone Insurance was up by 9.46 percent to close at 81k per share.
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FTN Cocoa processors rose by 8.82 percent to close at 37 kobo, while Royal Exchange gained 8.33 percent to close at 52 kobo per share.
On the other hand, Consolidated Hallmark Insurance led the losers’ chart in percentage terms by 7.69 percent to close at $60 per share.
Sovereign Trust Insurance followed with a decline of 6.52 percent to close at 43k, while Transcorp lost 5.23 percent to close at N2.90 per share.
Caverton Offshore Support Group declined 4.76 percent to close at N1, while Wapic Insurance shed 4.44 percent to close at 43k per share.
The total volume traded increased by 18 percent to 680.796 million units, valued at N7.89 billion, exchanged in 6,666 deals.
Transactions in the shares of Fidelity Bank topped the activity chart with 254.05 million shares valued at N1.42 billion.
Access Holdings followed with 112.83 million shares worth N1.13 billion, while Transcorp traded 63.391 million shares valued at N185.59 million.
GTCO traded 59.992 million shares valued at N1.57 billion, while Zenith Bank transacted 31.69 million shares worth N794.38 million.
(omayowa@globalfinancialdigest.com; Newsroom: +234 8033 964 138)
