Stock Exchange Market building Lagos
By Chinyere Joel-Nwokeoma
The bulls continued to dominate trading on the nations bourse with the market capitalisation appreciating further by N107 billion on Thursday, amid gains by blue chips.
Speficially, the market capitalisation inched higher by N107 billion or 0.79 per cent to close at N13.581 trillion from N13.474 trillion achieved on Wednesday.
Also, the All-Share Index grew by 204.12 points or 0.79 per cent to close at 25,987.14 against 25,783.02 recorded on Wednesday.
The upturn was impacted by gains recorded in large and medium capitalised stocks, among which are; Nigerian Breweries, Mobil, Dangote Cement, Lafarge Africa and Guaranty Trust Bank.
Analysts at United Capital Plc said that the market was reacting to the monetary policy action.
As expected, interest for equities improved and reactions at the bond market also mirrored expectations. We expect to see continuous flow of funds into the equities markets, especially from local investors.
The banking names remain our preferred pick given the impressive H1, 2020 results as well as the increasingly cheap cost of deposits, which should keep profit margin buoyant, they said.
Analysts at Afrinvest Limited said We expect the market to close the week in the green as investors continue to buy low-priced stocks.
Market sentiment closed positive with 25 stocks in contrast with seven losers.
Nigerian Breweries led the gainers chart in percentage terms, gaining 10 per cent to close at N47.85 per share.
Union Diagnostics with eight per cent to close at 27k, while Royal Exchange rose by 7.41 per cent to close at 29k per share.
Lafarge Africa garnered 6.82 per cent to close at N14.10, while C