First Bank fuels investors’ wealth with additional N329bn in one week

Last week, the bulls ran the bears underground, with interest in First Bank of Nigeria Holding (FBNH) pushing market capitalisation up by additional N329 billion to berth at N21.6 trillion.

Trading activity was strengthened as average volume and value traded rose 66.3 per cent and 119.9 per cent week-on-week ( w/w) respectively.

Leading the most traded stocks by volume were FBNH (1.1 billion units), GTCO (118.2 million units), and ETI (107.7 million units) while FBNH (N12.3 billion), SEPLAT (N1.1 billion), and ZENITH (N810.6 million) led trades by value.

The local bourse sustained gains on all trading days save Monday. Accordingly, the benchmark index rose 1.4 per cent week-on -week (w/w) to 41,438.15 points following strong buying interest in FBNH (+29.6 per cent), GTCO (+3.5 per cent), and WAPCO (+3.2 per cent). Similarly, Year-to-Date (YTD) return improved to 2.9 per cent and market capitalisation rose N329.0 billion w/w to N21.6 trillion.

Performance across the sectors within our coverage was largely bullish as all indices gained, save the AFR-ICT index which closed flat. Similar to last week’s trend, the Banking index led the gainers with a 2.6 per cent w/w gain due to buying interest in FBNH (+29.6 per cent), ETI (+9.5 per cent), and GTCO (+3.5 per cent). In the same vein, the Insurance and Industrial Goods indices rose 1.6 per cent and 1.0 per cent w/w respectively following price appreciation in ROYALEX (+12.3 per cent), CUSTODIAN (+9.0 per cent) and WAPCO (+3.2 per cent). Furthermore, the Oil & Gas and Consumer Goods indices advanced 0.6 per cent and 0.5 per cent w/w respectively on the back of price uptick in SEPLAT (+1.4 per cent), INTBREW (+9.9 per cent), and CADBURY (+6.3 per cent).