Nigeria stock market rises further on increased bargain

FOR the fourth time this week, Nigeria’s equities market closed in the positive region, rising by 0.81 percent at the close of trading session on Thursday.

Airtel Africa led other stocks like Axa Mansard, Nigerian Breweries, Ecobank Transnational and BUA Foods that caused the record positive close on the Bourse.

Airtel Africa rose from N1270 to N1350, adding N80 or 6.30percent. BUA Foods increased from

N59.75 to N63.40, up by N3.65 or 6.11percent.

Nigerian Breweries moved up from N44.95 to N48, adding N3.05 or 6.79percent.

Ecobank Transnational increased from N10 to N10.65, up by 65kobo or 6.50percent. Axa Mansard also increased from N1.75 to N1.90, adding 15kobo or 8.57percent.

The stock market’s year-to-date (YTD) positive return moved higher to 9.10 percent or N203billion.

At the close of trading on the Nigerian Exchange

Limited (NGX), the market’s key performance indicators - All Share Index (ASI) and equities Market Capitalisation - rose from 46,232.37 points and N25.181trillion respectively to 46,604.94 points and N25.384trillion.

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) last Tuesday raised the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) by 100 basis points (bps) to 16.50percent in its final meeting of the year.

“Despite the MPC decision, investors have continued to buy up stocks in the equity market,” said analysts at Lagos-based Vetiva research.

Though they had anticipated some profit-taking activities on Thursday, but still expect the positive sentiment in the market to hold firm.

In 3,434 deals, investors exchanged 138,600,651 shares valued at N2.170billion. Sterling Bank, Transcorp, Ecobank Transnational, Access Corporation and Jaiz Bank were top-5 traded stocks on the Nigerian Exchange.