Investors on the Nigeria equity market reversed last Friday’s marginal negative sentiment as the market capitalization gained N37 billion, following price appreciation on MTNN, Guaranty and 24 other stocks. As a result, the market breadth closed positive, recording 25 gainers as against 13 losers.
In summary, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 70.42 absolute points, representing a growth of 0.29% to close at 23,941.75 points. Similarly, the overall Market Capitalization size gained N36.69 million, representing an increase of 0.69% to close at N12.48 trillion.

OKOMUOIL emerged as the top gainer while LASACO emerged as the top loser.

The upturn was impacted by gains recorded in large and medium capitalized stocks, amongst which are; OKOMUOIL (+9.99%), UNILEVER (+7.87%), WAPCO (+6.07%), VITAFOAM (+4.80%), INTBREW (+4.17%), WEMABANK (+3.51%), ACCESS (+2.40%), FCMB (+1.74%), MTNN (+1.37%), GUARANTY (+1.11%), BUACEMENT (+0.63%), and ZENITHBANK (+0.32%).

FOREIGN EXCHANGE

The Naira at the official window on Thursday closed unchanged at 361.00/$1, against last Friday’s position.

The Investors and Exporters (I&E) FX window opened at N387.10, traded high at N399.99 and eventually closed at N386.33, representing a 0.09% depreciation as against last Friday’s closing position. A total of $18.55 million was transacted through the I&E window today.

MONEY MARKET

Overnight(O/N) rate closed at 2.33%, representing a 1.08% depreciation against last Friday’s closing position, while Open Buy-Back (OBB) rate closed at 1.83%, representing a 0.92% depreciation against last Friday’s position.

The NASD OTC market today closed negatively as the Unlisted Securities Index (USI) declined by 0.78% to close at 688.51, as against last Friday’s closing position. Similarly, Market Capitalization lost N3.99 billion to close at N505.76 billion. The aggregate volume and value increased by 1,276.92% and 644.32% respectively, as investors traded a total of 270,221 shares, worth N12.54 million in 7 deal.

SOURCE:https://brandspurng.com/2020/05/18/investors-gain-n37billion-amid-bargain-hunting/