Stock market opens week on positive note, up 0.34%

The Nigeria stock market opened the new week on a positive note, rising by N96billion or 0.34percent.

The market’s performance indicators – the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NGX) All Share Index (ASI) and Market Capitalisation increased from preceding day’s lows of 52,908.24 points and N28.523 trillion respectively to 53,086.46 points and N28.619trillion.

In 4,297 deals, investors exchanged 755,623,987 shares valued at N8.902billion. FBN Holdings, Flour Mills, Lafarge Africa, Transcorp, Zenith Bank were most traded stocks on the Bourse.

Conoil led the gainers after rising from N29.10 to N32, adding N2.90 or 9.97percent; followed by Pharmadeko, which rose from N1.60 to N1.75, adding 15kobo or 9.37percent, and Learn Africa which increased from N2.18 to N2.37, adding 19kobo or 8.72percent.

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“We expect the selloffs witnessed in the market in the past weeks to persist, as investors take profit on stocks that have recorded decent gains previously. We also do not see any significant positive trigger to spur buying interest in the market. Moreover, foreign inflows into the Nigerian equities market remain low as per the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report.

“Also, we note the Treasury bills auction coming up during the week amid the low market liquidity which can lead to profit-taking in anticipation of higher rates at the auction. Therefore, we expect the market to close the week in the negative region,” Meristem analysts had said in their June 6 note.