Activities at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) may not have mirrored the fears and anxiety being raised with the presidential elections.
This is because the Nigerian Equities Market sustained upward trend today as the All Share Index surged by 1.7 per cent to close at 31,090.81.
Similarly, market capitalization added N178.2bn and closed at N10.5tn. Market activity however moderated as value and volume traded dipped 58.8 per cent and 62.9 per cent to close at N1.8 trillion and 196.3 million units respectively.
The oil and gAs sector closed in the the red however. All sectors showed positive performance except oil and gas sector which dipped 0.2 per cent. The Banking sector led advancers by 2.8 per cent due to price appreciation in Zenith Bank (+5.1 per cent) and Guaranty Trust Bank (+2.6 per cent).
Following was the Industrial Goods sector which rose 1.7 per cent as a result of gains recorded in Dangote Cement (+3.9 per cent). The Insurance and Consumer Goods sectors also advanced 0.6 per cent and 0.1 per cent respectively.
Analysts say market sentiment remains positive.
Market breadth closed positive 3.7x with 41 stocks advancing against 11 decliners.
FIDSON (+9.1 per cent), NAHCO (+7.9 per cent) and ETERNA (+7.7 per cent) chaired the winners while VONO (-8.6 per cent), FORTE OIL (-5.0 per cent) and CADBURY (-5.0 per cent) led the losers.
“We expect investors to tread softly this week as the outcome of the presidential elections are to be released today”, said Afrinvest.