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•Capitalisation rises by N1.5 trillion in one trading session
•Operators link performance to new administration’s forthrightness
Expectations that President Bola Tinubu’s administration will stimulate activities in the nation’s stock market and restore the exchange on a path of sustainable growth triggered an unprecedented rally in the bourse yesterday, as investors gained N1.5 trillion, the highest daily profit in two years.
At the close of transactions, the all-share index (ASI) rose by 2,764.47 points or 4.96 per cent to close at 55,738.35 points, from 52,973.88 points recorded on Friday.
Also, market capitalisation of listed equities grew by N1.51 trillion, from N28.844 trillion to N30.349 trillion. The change in value translates to 5.2 per cent.
All the market indices closed in the green. The banking index closed at 8.2 per cent – the highest in eight years due to price appreciation in the shares of Zenith Bank (10 per cent), AccessCorp (8.3 per cent) and UBA (9.7 per cent).
Consequently, the market’s year-to-date gain stands at 8.76 per cent.
Further breakdown of yesterday’s market’s performance showed that Access Holdings was the most active stock with the sale of 199.62 million shares valued at N2.44 billion. FBN Holdings sold 127.93 million shares worth N1.75 billion while Transcorp traded 95.68 million shares valued at N30.92 million.
Also, the volume of stocks traded stood at 1.09 billion shares while the value of stocks traded stood at N15.799 billion, which exchanged hands in 9,916 deals.
Operators have attributed the huge gain to the President’s inaugural speech which is an indication that Nigeria would move away from a public sector-oriented economy to a private sector-dominated one.
Vice President, High-cap securities, David Adonri, said the President’s speech addressed three critical needs: insecurity fuel subsidy and unification of the exchange rates.
Adonri maintained that Tinubu’s remedial plans to tackle the challenges could boost the economy and attract investments.
“I would attribute this gain to a new government bounce as investors are happy and this means that their confidence has doubled compared to how it closed last week. The policy announcements made by the President resonated well with investors and I believe that his comments on the pressure points were quite stimulating and this is what resulted in the huge gain”, he said.
An independent investor, Amaechi Egbo appealed to the federal government to consider the age-long plan to encourage multinational companies to list on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) to deepen the market and enhance liquidity in the medium and long term
He noted that the business terrain must be more investor-friendly for micro small and medium-scale enterprises to flourish, adding that the capital market must be developed to assist local entrepreneurs to grow their businesses.
“My advice is that government should come up with robust investing friendly policies while the regulators must be more proactive with aggressive investors’ education especially for the minority investors to sustain the current rally.”
Vetiva Dealings and Brokerage said: “The market exhibited a favorable response to President Tinubu’s inauguration speech and his proposed plans for the country’s economy. This positive sentiment is anticipated to endure in the upcoming session, as investors responded positively to the latest transition of power to the new administration.”
United Capital Plc said: “We see more room for extended bargain hunting among listed corporates as investors look to reinvest dividends received across fundamentally sound stocks.
“We expect the slow reversal of yields in the fixed-income market to play a vital role in our expectations. More risk-averse investors will look to book some profit off profitable positions.”
Recall that similar enthusiasm greeted former President Muhammadu Buhari’s victory in 2015. Unfortunately, a few years after Buhari’s inauguration, hopes of increased market liquidity and investors’ confidence were dashed as investors could not identify any value addition to the capital market by his policies.
The capital market contributed very little to the economic development of the country in the period under review.
Tinubu in his inaugural speech, declared that fuel subsidy is gone” and that there was no provision for it in the budget he inherited from his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari.
He also stated that his administration will be targeting a higher GDP growth, creating jobs, working towards a unified exchange rate and ensuring that investors and foreign businesses repatriate their hard-earned dividends and profits home. Yesterday, 64 stocks appreciated while 12 others constituted the losers chart on the price movement chart.
Eight companies: Deap Capital, Eterna, First City Monument Bank, Nigerian Breweries, Zenith Bank, Jaiz Bank, Transcorp Hotel, and Sterling Bank led gainers chart with 10 per cent each, to close at 22 kobo, N7.70 kobo, N4.62 kobo, N42.35 kobo, N29.70 kobo, N1.10 kobo, N8.25 kobo and N1.98 kobo. African Prudential followed with 9.91 per cent to close at N6.10 kobo. Conoil also added 9.91 kobo to close at N52.70 kobo.
On the other hand, Ikeja Hotel led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent, to close at N2.16 kobo. NCR Nigeria followed with a decline of 9.80 per cent to close at N2.76, while Tantalizers declined by eight per cent to close at 23 kobo.
International Energy Insurance depreciated by 6.98 per cent to close at N1.2 while Consolidated Hallmark Insurance declined by 6.56 per cent to close at 57 kobo.
