The Nigerian Stock market closed Monday 4 percent higher w ith 36 advancing stocks and 5 decliners. The growth according to analysts at GTI capital is the local bourse’s highest daily growth in 44 months or in 3years and 8months.
The All Share Index (ASI) was up by 1193.37 absolute points, to close at 31,967.01 points. Similarly, Market Capitalization increased by N435.90 billion representing a growth of 3.88 percent to close at N11.68 trillion.
The year-to-date return consequently moderated to -16.4 percent.
Major drivers of the day’s performance were significant growth recorded in share prices of Stanbic (+10.0%), Nestle (+10.0%), Seplat (+9.9%) and Diamond (+10.0%). Activity level also improved as volume and value spiked 269.5 percent and 41.7 percent to 715.0m units and N5.2bn respectively.
The top traded stocks by volume were NEM Insurance (508.7m units), Medview Airline (54.8m units) and Guaranty Trust Bank (26.0m units) while Dangote Cement (N1.7bn), NEM Insurance (N1.5bn) and Guaranty Trust Bank (N892.0m) were the top traded stocks by value .
Performance across sectors was equally positive as all major indices under closed in the green. The oil & gas index advanced the most, up 5.7 percent due to gains in Seplat (+9.9%) and Oando (+1.1%). The consumer and industrial goods indices trailed, up 5.5 percent and 2.6 percent respectively following price appreciation in Nestle (+10.0%), Nigerian Breweries (+2.6%), Dangote Sugar (+10.0%) and Dangote Cement (+3.7%). Similarly, buying interest in Guaranty Trust Bank (+1.5%), Zenith (+1.3%), NEM Insurance (+6.1%) and Custodian and Allied Insurance (+1.9%) drove the Banking (+1.4%), Insurance (+1.0%) indices higher.
The day’s highest gainers were Diamond Bank (+10.0%), Dangote Sugar (+10.0%) and Stanbic (+10.0%) while Guinea Insurance (-8.0%), Tantalizer (-4.8%) and JohnHolt(-2.2%) led laggards.
Market performance is expected to be positive in subsequent sessions till year end. Analyst also opine that the performance will be largely driven by portfolio re-balancing.
The stock market will on Tuesday and Wednesday be closed for the Christmas holidays to open normal trading business Thursday.
