Equity Market Rebounds as Investors Gain N338bn

The equity market ended two days of bearish trading as investors gained N338bn on Wednesday.

The Nigerian Exchange Limited market capitalisation shed N757bn after Monday and Tuesday’s trading sessions, following the downgrade of Nigeria from frontier market status to unclassified market status by rating agency, FTSE Russell, over the inability of investors to repatriate capital.

FTSE said despite the harmonisation of the segments of the foreign exchange in Nigeria, “the lack of liquidity in the I&E FX Window continues to adversely impact the ability of international institutions to replicate benchmark changes.”

However, the equity market rebounded with a gain of N338bn on Wednesday on the back of investor interest in the shares of Dangote Sugar and NASCON Allied Industries which appreciated by 10 per cent each and other stocks.

The upswing was also driven by robust earnings reported by major lender, United Bank for Africa (+9.78 per cent), which helped alleviate bearish sentiment surrounding banking stocks in the aftermath of the downgrade.

The NGX All-Share Index rose by 0.93 per cent to close at 67,378.88 basis points and the market capitalisation stood at N 36.876tn at the close of trading.

The NGX Banking, NGX Insurance, and NGX Consumer Goods indexes rose by 4.58 per cent, 2.27 per cent, and 1.27 per cent, respectively.

However, the NGX Oil/Gas and NGX Industrial indices fell by 0.12 per cent and 0.03 per cent, respectively.

A total of 569,626,853 million units of shares worth over N8.69bn were traded on the NGX in 8,404 deals.

Market sentiment trended positive as reflected in 34 gainers and 24 losers.

Both Dangote Sugar and NASCON had closed at N57.20 and N51.70 respectively on Wednesday.

The duo were in the middle of a merger with Dangote Rice Limited.

NAHCO, United Capital’s shares also rose by 10 per cent to close trading at N23.65 and N16.50 each.

Also in the top five gainers league was indigenous conglomerate, Transnational Corporation Plc, whose shares gained 9.98 per cent each to close at N6.61.

On the losers table were Courtville whose shares depreciated by 10 per cent to close at N0.54, ABC Transport shares lost 9.80 per cent in value to close at N0.92 each.

Eatery Tantalizers also got on the losers table as its shares fell 9.30 per cent each to close at N0.39.

The stocks of LearnAfrica and Omatek depreciated by 8.51 per cent and 8.33 per cent respectively to close at N3.01 and N0.44 per share.

In terms of trading activities, Oando led with 143,445,074 million shares worth N1.39bn exchanged, followed by Accesscorp with 63,556,965 units valued at N1.07bn traded.

Over 39 million units of Fidelity Bank shares worth N313.78m were also exchanged.