Nigeria stock investors gain N107bn following increased bargains

Nigeria’s stock market continued its upward movement on Thursday September 24, gaining about N107billion as investors strengthened bargain activities around value counters.

At the close of trading session on the nation’s bourse, its benchmark performance indicator, the All Share Index (ASI) increased by 0.79percent to 25,986.20 points, from preceding trading day low of 25,783.02 points.

Stocks like Nigerian Breweries Plc , Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc, Dangote Cement Plc, Lafarge Africa Plc, GTBank Plc and others helped the market to close in green.

Nigerian Breweries stocks moved up most from N43.5 to N47.85, adding N4.35 or 10percent. Mobil Oil Nigeria rose from N193.1 to N195.1, up by N2 or 1.04percent.

Also, Dangote Cement rose from N134.7 to N135.9, adding N1.2 or 0.89percent. Lafarge Africa increased from N13.2 to N14.1, adding 90kobo or 6.82percent. Likewise, GTBank share price increased from N25.5 to N26, up by 50kobo or 1.96percent.

“As far as valuations go, sentiments around the Nigerian market have improved. However, the market still trades at a significant discount to its peers. Although macroeconomic conditions remain fragile, we expect investor interests on fundamentally sound counters with significant upside potential to sustain the market performance,” Meristem research analysts had said.

The stock market’s negative return year-to-date (YtD) decreased to -3.19percent. The stock market capitalisation increased by N107billion to N13.581trillion as against preceding trading day low of N13.474trillion.

In 3,576 deals, investors exchanged 359,307,226 units valued at N3.873billion. Banking stocks were actively traded on the Bourse led by Sterling Bank, GTBank, Zenith Bank, Fidelity Bank and that of Flour Mills.