Nigeria’s stock market rallies by 2.57% in August

Nigeria’s stock market opened the new trading week on a positive note, though it was a mild gain of +0.07 percent or circa N9billion in value.

Africa’s largest economy’s stock market closed the month of August with record positive return of about +2.57percent.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All Share Index (ASI) closed at 25,327.13 points while the value of listed stock increased slightly to N13.212trillion as against day open lows of 25,309.37 points and N13.203 trillion respectively.

Analysts at United Capital research had expected to see some level of profit-taking “given the bullish performance in the last two weeks, especially as we continue to await the publication of Tier-1 Banks audited H1-2020 result.”

Their counterparts at Vetiva research said they expect the market to be driven by the long-awaited results of the Tier 1 banking stocks, “coupled with continued bargain hunting activities in the Consumer goods space.”

The market’s year-to-date (ytd) negative return decreased to -5.64percent. The positive open to new week was aided by bargains in stocks like Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc which increased from N175 to N192.5, after adding N17.5 or 10percent.

Also, Dangote Cement Plc share price rose from N134.2 to N134.9, up by 70kobo or 0.52percent. Lafarge Africa Plc advanced from N11.55 to N11.95, up by 40kobo or 3.46percent. Vitafoam Nigeria Plc went up from N5.47 to N5.71, up 24kobo or 4.39percent while BUA Cement rose from N40 to N40.1, up by 10kobo or 0.25percent.

In 3,854 deals, investors exchanged 302,009,486 units valued at N2.627billion. UACN, Zenith Bank, UBA, FBN Holdings and Access Bank were actively traded stocks.