Nigerian Stocks Hit Highest Level Ever

Nigerian stocks attained their peak level ever on Tuesday as the all-share index, which measures the overall performance of equities climbed 0.5 per cent to 66,490.3 basis points on the back of a series of market-friendly reforms helping Africa’s largest economy restore investor confidence to its markets

Tuesday’s feat pushes a high of 66,371.2 basis points, set more than 15 years ago on 5 March, 2008, to the back seat.

Nigerian stocks have been on a rise since President Bola Tinubu introduced some of the country’s boldest reforms in decades in the early weeks of his administration, especially an abolition of costly fuel subsidies and a unification of multiple exchange rates.

They reached the summit of performance since March 1996, when official records began, hinged on buyers’ interest in the shares of big lenders – Access Holdings, Zenith, FBN Holdings and GTCO.

Demand for a good number of consumer goods stocks also helped gains, with equities adding N348 billion at the end of trade.

“We project mixed sentiments toward listed equities, with some investors’ continuing their cherry-picking activities around fundamentally sound stocks with strong potentials in terms of recently disclosed corporate actions,” said analysts at United Capital in their outlook note for the week seen by PREMIUM TIMES.

Market breadth, an indicator of investor sentiment towards trade, was positive as 34 gainers were reported compared to 32 decliners.

Market capitalisation climbed to N39.7 trillion from the N36.2 trillion reported at the previous session. The index has returned 29.7 per cent since the beginning of the year.

TOP FIVE GAINERS
Flour Mills appreciated by 10 per cent to close at N33. Champion Breweries enlarged by 10 per cent to end trade at N3.19. NASCON rose to N54.10, notching up 10 per cent in the process. Dangote Sugar went up by 10 per cent to N57.45. NAHCO completed the top 5, climbing by 10 per cent to N22.10

TOP FIVE LOSERS
CWG led losers, declining by 10 per cent to close at N4.05. Linkage Assurance shed 10 per cent to end trade at N0.90. Chellarams fell to N3.57, losing 9.9 per cent. Prestige slid to N0.46, recording a 9.8 per cent depreciation. UPL closed at N2.15, going down by 9.7 per cent.

TOP FIVE TRADES

Altogether, 437 million shares estimated at N7 billion were traded in 7,932 deals.

FBN Holdings was the most active stock with 55.1 million of its shares worth N911.2 million traded in 288 deals. Japaul’s shares of 33.1 million units, priced at N29.9 million, exchanged hands in 127 transactions. UBA had 30.2 million shares valued at N412.2 million traded in 506 deals. Access Holdings traded 25.4 million shares estimated at N414.4 million in 452 transactions. Transcorp traded 18.2 million shares valued at N127.7 million in 181 deals.