Bank stocks’ gains help put stopper on Nigerian shares’ eight-day losing jinx

Nigerian stocks halted an eight-day bearish run on Tuesday as the benchmark index posted a weak climb of 0.02 per cent, helped by investors’ risk-off disposition to bank stocks.

The notable rise in bank equities like Zenith, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), GTCO, Fidelity and UBA is coming a day after ETI reported 847 per cent surge in after-tax profit for the nine months to September.

But the release of the audited earnings report of FBN Holdings for the same period was welcomed with disappointment by investors as the profit after tax of the lender crumbled by 40 per cent, prompting investors to put up a humongous volume of its shares for sale. The stock accounted for 56.9 per cent of the entire shares traded and declined by 1.71 per cent.

A positive market breadth was reported, showing 20 risers against 19 losers at the end of trade.

The all-share index increased 10.32 points to 42,018.92 points, while market capitalisation closed higher at N21.93 trillion.

The index has seen a 4.34 per cent gain January to date.

TOP FIVE GAINERS

Capital Hotel traded up by 10 per cent to close at N1.04. Meyer went up 8.33 per cent to N0.26. NEM rose to N2.42, notching up 7.56 per cent in the process. Academy Press added 7.14 per cent to end today’s trade at N0.45. Royal Exchange completed the top 5, climbing by 6.90 per cent to N0.62.

TOP FIVE LOSERS

GSK was the worst performing stock, declining by 9.30 per cent to N5.35. Seplat shed 5.38 per cent to close at N615. Jaiz Bank fell to N0.64, losing 4.48 per cent. Dangote Cement fell to N15, recording 3.32 per cent depreciation. Japaul Gold closed at N0.38, going down by 2.56 per cent.

TOP FIVE TRADES

In all, 639.4 shares estimated at N6.6 billion were traded in 4,564 deals.

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FBN Holdings traded the most shares with 364 million units of its common stock worth N4.1 billion traded in 338 transactions. Sterling Bank transacted 81 million shares priced at N121.4 million exchanged hands in 53 transactions. ETI had 19.8 million shares valued at N159.4 million traded in 152 deals. GTCO traded 19.4 million shares estimated at N467 million in 455 transactions. Fidelity traded 18.6 million shares valued at N43.6 million in 180 deals.