In what has been described as gift to investors by Santa Claus, the basic indicators of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) rose significantly, with the All-Share index gaining 1,193.37 basis points, or 3.88% on Monday, close at 31,967.01bps on the eve of Christmas, while market capitalization increased by N435.898bn to N11.68tr.
This reduced the year-to-date loss in the NSEASI to 16.41%.
Monday’s leap in the indicators, according to analysts at GTI Capital, which was the highest since April 2015- three years and eight months ago, followed gains by 36 stocks, as against only five laggards. The maximum 10% gains were recorded at the end of trading by Dangote Sugar, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Diamond Bank and Nestle Nigeria.
Other significant gainers on Monday included Seplat Petroleum Development Company, 9.99%; Forte Oil, 9.84% on a day Femi Otedola, its majority shareholder announced plans to divest its downstream business (READ MORE); and Cement Company of Northern Nigeria, 9.83%. Unity Bank, 9.38%; UACN, 9.09%; FBN Holdings, 8.86%; in addition to the NSE’s bellweather- Dangote Cement, which notched 3.74%; Flour Mills, 2.86%; Access Bank, 2.13%; and Zenith Bank, 1.32%.
The decliners’ side was led by Guinea Insurance, 8%; Tantalizer, 4.76%; John Holt, 2.22%; United Capital, 2.08%; and Lafarge Africa, 0.79%.
Transaction volume also rose significantly to 715.035m shares valued at N5.194bn in 2,789 deals.