Stock Market Watch: The Bulls are back at it

The upwards trajectory of the market continued today to the delight of investors and capital market analysts. The All Share Index increased by 90 points to close at 20,604.48.

Nigerian Breweries set an outstanding pace as the highly capitalized stock appreciated by the maximum 500 points at the end of the session.

Guinness also performed well, as its share price bagged an uptick of 4.35%.

Across the conglomerates sub-sector, UAC and Transcorp recorded an above average performance as they recorded increases over 300 points apiece. On the contrary PZ recorded marginal improvement of 19 points even as Leventis took a big hit, shedding 483 points.

Mixed results emerged from the Infrastructure sector today. Construction companies were quiet as no activity was recorded there, however cement manufacturers produced mixed results. Only CCNN gained, and it did so marginally, appreciating by 96 points only. Ashaka took the hit, falling by 496 points even as Lafarge shed 24 points post-trading.

The banking sub-sector was not a bad place to be positioned today. Access bank led the bulls, as it clinched a 4.94% share price increase. UBA was not far behind, the company recorded a gain of 400 points. Other top-tiers in the green were GTbank that picked up 163 points and First Bank, gaining a marginal 64 points.

Fidelity, Stanbic, Diamond and Wema also recorded share price appreciation.

Bearish sentiment presided over FCMB, Sterling, Skye and Zenith as the banks recorded losses of 4.21%, 2.91%, 0.93% and 2.44% to their share prices today.

Cadbury and Dangote Sugar sweetened the pot for the Food and Beverages sub-sector, recording gains of 456 and 444 points respectively. On the flip, Dangote Flour and Nascon shed 445 and 360 points each. 7Up was also down close to the maximum 500 points.

The insurance subsector saw positive price movement in Continental Reinsurance (+4.6%), Prestige Assurance (+4.44%), Custodian (+3.81%) and GT Assur (+2.9%). Intercontinental Wapic was down (-3.7%).

Fidelity bank led the volume charts as over 138 million units of the stock was traded today.

Over 479 million shares valued at approximately N 2.5 billion traded today. The market capitalization of the exchange is N 6.5 trillion.