The Nigerian Exchange Limited rebounded on Wednesday as the market capitalisation gained N132bn driven by appreciation in the share values of Seplat Energy (+10 per cent), Meyer Plc (+9.79 per cent), Sunu Assurance (+9.56 per cent), Nestle (+9.52 per cent) and Consolidated Hallmark Holdings Plc (+9.24 per cent).
The All-Share Index closed with a gain of 0.34 per cent, reaching 71,283.34 points, while the market capitalisation rose to N39.007tn on the back of investors’ bullish sentiment, particularly in select medium and large cap stocks with strong fundamentals.
Trading activity moderated as total deals and volume experienced declines of 19.14 per cent and 32.55 per cent, amounting to 6,579 deals and 360.60 million units. However, the total value for the day increased by 17.64 per cent to N6.61bn.
Despite the bullish sentiments, the market saw more losers, 39, than gainers, 21.
With strong buying interests from investors, Seplat, Meyer, Sunu Assurance, Nestle Plc and Consolidated Hallmark Holdings Plc closed at N2.310, N3.59, N1.49, N1.150 and N1.30 per unit after gains ranging from 10 per cent to 9.24 per cent.
The losers’ chart was led by Guinea Insurance which lost 10 per cent to close at N0.27, Omatek lost 9.88 per cent to close at N0.73, Abbey Mortgage Bank lost 9.68 to close at N1.68, Neimeth Pharma lost 9.45 per cent to close at N1.82 and Tantalizer lost 8.62 per cent to close at N0.53 per unit.
Performance across the sectors was largely bullish as four out of the five sectors tracked closed positive with the Insurance, Consumer Goods, Oil/Gas and Industrial Goods indexes recording significant advancements, rising by 1.17 per cent, 0.89 per cent, 6.06 per cent and 0.01 per cent, respectively.
On the other hand, banking stocks emerged as the only laggard for the day, declining by 0.56 per cent.
At the close of Wednesday’s trading session, GTCO was the most traded security in terms of volume and value with 56.91 million units worth N2.19bn traded, changing hands in 261 deals.
