Bulls dominate equity deals as market gains N16bn on opening day

By Omobayo Azeez

The bulls maintained their dominance on the Nigerian bourse as activities closed on a positive note on Monday to kick start a new week.

Investors’ interest in NESTLE (+4.7 per cent), FBNH (+1.9 per cent) and DANGSUGAR (+0.8 per cent) stocks provided support for the market’s gain.

Following from these outcomes the All-Share Index advanced by 0.12 per cent to close at 24,858.89 basis points while market capitalization appreciated by N16 billion to close at N12.968 trillion.

Accordingly, the Month-to-Date (MtD) and Year-to-Date (YtD) losses moderated to -1.6 per cent and -7.4 per cent respectively.

The total volume of trades increased by 24.8 per cent to 158.73 million units, valued at N1.64 billion and exchanged in 3,940 deals. This was driven most actively by GUARANTY as it emerged the most traded stock by volume and value at 17.83 million units and N401.07 million respectively.

As for sectoral performances, declines were recorded across the Banking (-1.2 per cent), Oil & Gas (-0.6 per cent) and Industrial Goods (-0.1 per cent) indices while the Consumer Goods (+1.9 per cent) and Insurance (+0.2 per cent) indices closed positive.

Market sentiment, as measured by market breadth, was negative as 29 tickers declined, relative to 18 gainers and 16 others that closed on unchanged prices.

Meanwhile, as UNILEVER and ARDOVA shed -10.0 per cent and ARDOVA (-10.0 per cent respectively, the duo led other losers of the day at the red camp while OKOMUOIL and CUTIX, each advancing by 10.0 per cent recorded the largest gains.