Bulls maintain tight grip on local bourse as buying interest propels ASI by 0.26%

Bamidele Famoofo

The local stock exchange maintained its positive trajectory this trading week, with the All-Share Index (ASI) rising by 0.26 percent to close at 98,227.50 points.

This modest increase added N166.6 billion to the market capitalization, bringing it to N59.53 trillion. The boost was partly attributed to the listing of Haldane McCall Plc. The year-to-date (YTD) return remained strong at 31.37 percent.

Sectoral performance was broadly positive, with gains recorded in Banking (0.06%),
Insurance (0.78%), Consumer Goods (1.09%), and Industrial Goods (0.35%), while the Oil & Gas sector dipped slightly by 0.09%. Market breadth favoured the bulls, with 38 stocks advancing compared to 27 decliners.

Top gainers included AUSTINLAZ and TANTALIZER (both up 10.00%), LAFARGE (9.43%), HONYWELL
(7.46%), and EUNISELL (5.41%). On the losing side, NNFM, RTBRISCOE, MULTIVERSE, DAARCOMM, and MCNICHOLS led the decliners.

Trading activity was robust, with increases in the number of deals (9.13%), volume (10.95%), and trade value (31.58%). A total of 370.52 million shares valued at N8.45 billion were traded across 10,026 deals. Haldane McCall Plc emerged as the most actively traded stock by volume, with 39.5 million units worth N167 million exchanged in 32 transactions.