Buhari effect pushes stocks higher

Nigeria’s equities market witnessed a strong rally in stocks today as Major General Muhammadu Buhari, the president-elect was announced in the early hours of the day.

The benchmark index recorded gains of 833bps to close at 34,388.5 points as the market capitalization also added a historic N906.3bn to settle at N11.6trn (US$58.4bn).

The gains cut across all sectors but the market was largely supported by appreciation in the heavyweight counters, such as Dangote Cement, Lafarge WAPCO (10.3%), GUARANTY (10.2%), ZENITHBANK (10.2%), NB (10.2%), FBNH (10.0%), SEPLAT (7.9%), among others.

Sentiments in the market was highly bullish as the market breadth closed at 16.0x on the back of gains in 64 stocks versus declines in 4 stocks.

Analysts said the market will continue its bullish trading Thursday.

Analysts also said with Buhari’s emergence as Nigeria’s new leader, foreign investors who took away about $700 million investment between January and February this year, may stage a comeback even before the swearing-in date on 29 May.