• Saturday, July 27, 2024
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Market sees first gain this week as bargain hunting starts

Nigeria stocks shed N1.32trn in rate hike week

Nigeria’s equities market on Wednesday recorded its first gain this week as investors bargain hunting activities pushed the market higher by 0.24 percent.

Investors bought stocks like Eterna, Red Star Express, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Fidelity Bank and International Breweries.

The record positive close seen after two consecutive sessions of negatives came despite that some investors are still retaining unclear near-term outlook on the equities market following Nigeria’s high interest rate environment.

Stanbic led the gainers after its share price moved from N52 to N57, adding N5 or 9.62percent. Eterna also increased from N12.25 to N13.45, adding N1.20 or 9.80percent. Fidelity Bank also increased from N10 to N10.80, adding 80kobo or 8percent.

The Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) All-Share Index (ASI) and Market Capitalisation increased from preceding day’s 99,051.02 points and N56.031 trillion respectively to 99,284.38 points and N56.163 trillion.

The stock market’s year-to-date (YtD) return rose to 32.78 percent.

In 7,690 deals, investors exchanged 308,136,231 shares worth N4.862billion. Fidelity Bank, Oando, Veritas Kapital Assurance, Unity Bank and Transcorp were most traded stocks.