Nigeria Content Online

Equity
performance rebounded at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Wednesday
as market measuring parametre, the market capitalisation, appreciated
by a 0.26 percent.

At the close of
proceedings yesterday, the market capitalisation recorded over N21
billion gains on last trading figures of N7.887 trillion, to close at
N7.908 trillion.

All the NSE
sectoral indexes maintained previous outlook to close positive as the
NSE-30, which measures the performance of blue chips in the market,
gained by 0.41 percent; the NSE Banking gained the highest point by
0.50 percent; Oil & Gas moved up by 0.13 percent; the Food &
Beverages appreciated by 0.08 percent; while the NSE Insurance closed
flat.

Commenting on
Wednesday’s market performance, analysts at Proshare Nigeria, an
investment advisory firm, said the nation’s capital market witnessed
“low participation and lackluster performance in the early trades, but
later geared up in the noon session with key benchmark indices
recording thin turnover.”

They said banking
stocks and food/beverages stocks with few insurance stocks remained the
“toast of investors” during the session, while majority of the rescued
banks saw profit booking.

Low gainers

At the close of
trading on Wednesday, the number of gainers closed lower at 27 stocks,
as against the 30 gainers recorded the previous session, while losers
closed at 24 stocks; same position with the previous trading day’s
figures.

The NSE’s
transaction volume moved down by 62.62 percent to close at 211.60
million units exchanged in 3,939 deals, as against a growth of 80.57
percent recorded the previous trading to close at 566.04 million units
exchanged in 3,300 deals.

Also, market value
dropped yesterday by 2.97 percent to close at N1.67 billion, as against
a decline by 39.73 percent recorded last Friday to close at N1.73
billion.

Active subsector

The Banking
subsector led the market transaction volume on Wednesday with 138.29
million units valued at N1.22 billion exchanged in 2,547 deals, as
against the 104.93 million units valued at N827.70 million exchanged in
1,939 deals recorded on Friday.

The volume recorded
in the subsector was driven by transaction in the shares of Zenith
Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, First Bank, Fidelity Bank, and Oceanic Bank.

The total volume of
69.30 million units valued at N823.93 billion traded in the shares of
the five stocks accounted for 32.75 percent of the entire market volume
and their value represented 49.07 percent of the market’s value.

The banking
subsector closed on Wednesday with 9 gainers to 8 losers, compared with
10 gainers to nine losers that was recorded the previous trading day.