Bourse sustains impressive run as stock market capitalization hits N15.4trn

Nigerian bourse continued its impressive run for the third day consecutively despite the many odds weighing other financial markets with the Nigerian Stock Exchange market capitalization now standing at N15.4 trillion.

The All Share Index gained by +1.58% to close at 29,437.60 points, as against +0.70% appreciation recorded on Tuesday. Its Year-to-Date (YTD) returns currently stands at +9.67%.

While the Nigerian bourse trading turnover dropped by 2.68%, as against the 13.14% gain recorded on Tuesday, market breadth closed positive as NESTLE led 41 Gainers, as against 5 Losers topped by Royalex at the end of today’s session – an unimproved performance when compared with the previous outlook.

Nestle Plc led the gainers table, appreciating by 10 per cent to close at N129.05, followed by Conoil’s N19.05.

Other companies on the gainers table are:  Flourmill Plc up 6.42% to close at N28.2; Total Plc up 5.97% to close at N118.9 and DangCem up 2.17% to close at N155.3.

Royalex led the losers table with its stock down by 8.00 per cent to close at N0.23, followed closely by Cutix whose stock went down by 6.84 per cent to close at N1.77.

Others are: HoneyFlour down by 1.03% to close at N0.96; Afrprud down by 0.85 per cent to close at N5.85, while Maybaker was down by 0.33 per cent to close at N3.05.

Zenith Bank Plc, Fidelity Bank and ETI were the most active to boost market turnover at the close of trading on Wednesday.

Buying pressure was significantly seen across leading NSE 30 Stocks like Dangote Cement, Nestle, and not forgetting Total which recently declared a profit after tax of 500 Million in Q3 thereby beating market analysts’ forecasts.

Meanwhile, currency traders at mid-week trading sessions increased their buying pressure on the safe-haven currency greenback, as they turned away in masses from riskier fiat currencies.

This is so, given the prevailing geopolitical uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic – particularly in Europe, and coupled with sentiments surrounding the very close U.S presidential election.

The U.S. Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six global currencies, gained 0.5%, while EUR/USD was down 0.4% at 1.1749, falling for the third consecutive trading day.

The dollar has gained traction of late on the bias that the COVID-19 virus seems to be going out of hand; thereby, leading traders to increase their long bets on the U.S dollar – as the virus spreads in key markets, in places like Europe and the United States.