By Peter Egwuatu

The Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE All-Share Index (ASI) closed higher on Tuesday by 1.1 percent or 109 bases points, bps to close at 24,202.87 points as investors gained N100.4 billion.

The Index went up following the buying interest in Dangote Cement (2.8 percent), Guaranty Trust Bank (2.4 percent) and Zenith Bank (2.3 percent).

Consequently, investors gained ₦100.4billion as market capitalisation increased to ₦12.6 trillion while Year to Date, YtD loss settled at -9.8 percent. Activity level advanced as volume and value traded rose 2.7 percent and 33.9 percent to 339.8million units and ₦3.9billion respectively.

The most active stocks by volume were Access Bank (80.6million units) Guaranty Trust Bank (41.9million units), and Zenith Bank (39.7 million units) while Guaranty Trust Bank (N972.0million), Zenith (N628.9million) and Dangote Cement (N579.6 million) led the value chart.

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Performance across sectors was bullish as four indices gained. The Consumer Goods index was the lone loser, down 1.7 percent due to sell pressure in International Breweries (-3.0 percent). Meanwhile, gains in Guaranty Trust Bank (1.1 percent), Zenith Bank (2.3 percent) and Dangote Cement (2.8 percent) pushed the Banking and Industrial Goods indices higher by 2.1 percent and 0.8 percent respectively.

Similarly, the Insurance and Oil & Gas indices rose 0.4 percent and 0.2 percent respectively due to price appreciation in AIICO Insurance (5.6 percent), CORNERSTONE (1.8 percent ) and OANDO ( 2.2 percent ). Finally, the AFR-ICT index closed flat.

Meanwhile, investor sentiment strengthened as measured by market breadth with 29 stocks gaining relative to eight losers. The top gainers were CAVERTON (10.0 percent), OKOMU OIL (10.0 percent) and Unilever (+9.9 percent) while LASACO (-8.0 percent), NAHCO (-4.5 percent) and WAPIC (-3.3 percent) were top decliners.

Analysts at Afrinvest Research said: “We expect to see gains in the next trading session as investors continue to seek bargain hunting opportunities.”

VANGUARD