Nigeria’s stock market rallies as investors buy Oando, others

Nigeria’s equity investors on Wednesday reacted positively to the ruling of the High Court of the FCT, Abuja presided over by Justice O. A. Musa which favoured a shareholder of Oando Plc.

The Court ruled for Africa’s largest integrated energy solutions provider to hold its Annual General Meeting (AGM) which about two years ago was suspended indefinitely by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Patrick Ajudua (an Engineer), who is a shareholder of Oando Plc won big in the court on Tuesday, February 23 after he took it upon himself to legally challenge the decision of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The shares of Oando Plc which led the buy-side activities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) rallied most by 31kobo or 10 percent, thereby helping the local Bourse to sustain the previous day’s gains following the record bearish reign last week.

Read Also: FCT High Court rules Oando can hold AGM

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 0.14percent from 40,164.86 points to 40,221.30 points while market capitalisation increased by N29billion, from N21.014trillion to N21.043trillion. The year-to-date (Ytd) negative return has decreased to 0.12 percent, while this week, the market has gained 0.09percent.

Other stocks that gained include ABC Transport (+9.38percent), Japaul Gold (+9.23percent), Royal Exchange (+8.70percent), and Academy Press (+7.89percent).

Lagos-based analysts at Vetiva Securities said they anticipate a mixed trading pattern on Thursday, “with continued bargain hunting in some counters and profit-taking in others due to recent gains.”

Zenith Bank, GTBank, FBN Holdings, Transcorp, and United Capital were actively traded stocks. In 5,470 deals, investors exchanged 469,562,252 units valued at N7.080billion.