The benchmark Index increased by 0.55 percent to close at 44,050.44 basis points on Wednesday, as the Nigerian stock market recovered from the week’s losses and experienced positive trading.
Zenith Bank and Guaranty Trust Holding Company’s banking stocks increased by 8.5% and 6.6%, respectively, as bargain-hunting led to the bullish trade.
As a result, the returns for the Month and Year to Date increased to +0.5% and +3.1%, respectively.
The market’s recovery was also fueled by positive sentiment toward telco heavyweights MTN Nigeria, BUA Foods, and Zenith Bank, whose shares increased by 0.32 percent, 0.80 percent, and 8.46 percent, respectively.
As a result, equity investors made N131.92 billion while the market capitalization increased to N23.99 trillion at the close.
Market sentiment was down as evidenced by the market’s breadth, which showed that 22 stocks declined relative to 20 advances. According to the performance chart, Eterna and Guinness suffered the greatest losses of the day after their share prices declined by 10.0 and 9.7 percent, respectively; Cornerstone Insurance and MRS topped the list of gainers after their share prices increased by 10.0 and 9.7 percent, respectively.
When broken down by industry, the Banking, Insurance, and Industrial Goods indices saw gains of 4.2%, 0.8%, and 0.4%, respectively, while the Oil & Gas and Consumer Goods indices saw losses of 0.4% and 0.2%, respectively.
According to an analysis of market activity on Wednesday, trade turnover increased compared to the previous session, with the value of transactions rising by 141.12%.
In total, 3,039 transactions included 159.44 million shares for N2.86 billion. With 27.95 million units traded, Fidelity Bank topped the volume chart, while Airtel Africa topped the value chart with deals totaling N626.62 million.
