Blue-chip stocks propel Nigerian equity market to gain

The Nigerian equity market opened the new week on a positive note on the back of gains recorded by some blue-chip stocks such as GTBank, MTNN and FCMB.

The All-Share Index (ASI) grew by 40.01 absolute points, representing a growth of 0.10% to close at 38,848.02 points, while the Market Capitalization value gained N20.94 billion, representing an increase of 0.10% to close at N20.33 trillion as the year-to-date loss improved to -3.5%.

FCMB (+9.8%), NNFM (+9.3%) and UPL (+9.3%) topped 15 other gainers, while FTNCOCOA (-10.0%), Unity Bank (-7.8%) and UAC-PROP (-5.1%) led the 12 laggards’ chart.

Investors showed renewed interest in the local bourse as volume and value of stocks traded shot up 93.8% and 1,216.6% respectively to 508.6 million units and ₦32.1billion.

MTNN (181.7million units), Fidelity Bank (106.9 million units), and FBNH (35.0 million units) were the most active equities in volume terms, while MTNN (₦29.7billion), Zenith Bank (₦392.8 million), and GTBank (₦376.4 million) attracted more value.

The Insurance index led gainers, up 0.4% due to price appreciation in Mansard (+1.1%) and Mutual Benefit (+8.8%), while the Banking index rose 0.3% on account of buying interest in GTBank (+1.2%) and FCMB (+9.8%).

International Breweries (+1.8%), Honey Flour (+9.2%), and MTNN (+0.2%) drove the Consumer Goods and AFR-ICT indices higher by 0.1% apiece.

However, the Oil & Gas index was the lone laggard, down 0.2% following selloffs in TOTAL (-4.3%). The Industrial Goods index closed flat.

Analysts have projected that may enjoy a bullish run this week as companies release their first-quarter results.