Nigerian stocks Friday ended a short but strong slide recorded in the previous trading session, pushing the main equity index up 0.7 percent.
Year-to-date returns remain in the red though singularly because of the big blow to equities on Friday after some profit-taking that took the shine off the three daily gains reported earlier in the week.
Reasonably driven by increased activity, the rebound followed a 41 percent increase in transaction volume.
Airtel Africa – a stock that led the previous session’s reversal with support from bank stocks – led the charge this time, also supported by bank stocks.
Investment bank Meristem Securities, in its annual outlook for 2023 published on Friday, envisions Nigerian stocks will return lower this year compared to 2022, forecasting 10.5 percent.
Market breadthmeasure of investor sentiment for trade, was negative with 18 recorded losses compared to 16 advancers.
The all-share index was up 353.8 basis points at 51,222.3. In addition, the market capitalization advanced to N27.9 trillion.
The index is down 0.1 percent since the start of the year.
TOP FIVE GAINERS
NPF Microfinance grew by 9.6 percent to N1.72. Neimeth gained 8.4 percent to close at N1.6. Eterna rose by 5.6 percent to N7.2. NGX Group leapt to N25.4, notching up 5.4 percent in the process. Wapic completed the top 5, rising 4.9 percent to N0.43.
TOP FIVE losers
PZ declined 9.11 percent to N11. Consolidated Hallmark fell to N0.60, losing 7.7 percent. ETI fell to N0.28, recording a loss of 6.7 percent. Champion Breweries closed at N4.64, down 5.3 percent. Academy shed 5.3 percent to end the day at N1.25.
ALSO READ: Nigerian stocks fall, erasing early year gains
TOP FIVE trading
A total of 195.7 million shares worth N7.4 billion were traded in 3,650 transactions.
FBN Holdings was the most preferred stock trading 41.9 million shares worth N466.5 million in 133 deals. BUA Cement has 30.2 million units of shares valued at N2.9 billion in 60 transactions. UBA has 17.3 million shares valued at N140.2 million traded in 167 offers. Akses Holdings sold 13.7 million shares valued at N123.1 million in 154 transactions while GTCO traded 10.2 million shares valued at N244 million in 257 transactions.
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