Lagos — The bulls resurfaced in the equities market, at the close of trading at the Nigeria Stock Exchange ( NSE) with the All Share Index (ASI) closing higher by 1.57% to 35,206.16 points, as investors hunted bargains in DANGCEM shares.
Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date losses moderated to -4.89% and -7.94%, respectively.
The Industrial Goods (+1.98%) index led sectoral indices, as investor interest in DANGCEM (+6.98%) shares offset the selloffs of WAPCO (-5.58%) shares.
Demand for WAPIC (+8.82%) and OANDO (+5.26%) stocks led to the gains posted in the Insurance (+0.25%) and Oil & Gas (+0.20%) indices. On the flip side, the Banking (-0.64%) and Consumer Goods (-0.39%) indices closed negative, following sell pressure in the shares of ACCESS (-5.26%) and LIVESTOCK (-9.84%), respectively.
Market breadth remained negative, with 25 losers and 11 gainers, led by LIVESTOCK (-9.84%) and WAPIC (+8.82%) shares. Total volume of trades inched up 0.10% to N220.71 million units, valued at N2.53 billion, and exchanged in 3,287 deals.
Analyst at Cordros capital said: "We guide investors to trade cautiously in the short-to-medium term, as the absence of a positive one-off catalyst and brewing political concerns, continues to cast a shadow on our outlook for risky assets.
"However, the likelihood of recovery in the long term remains supported by stable macroeconomic fundamentals."