Listed Stocks on the Nigerian equities market ticked higher in Thursday’s session to give investors a N35 billion gain and halt a three-day bearish streak.
The positive traction in the session can be attributed to bargain buying across select large-cap stocks courtesy of gains in Dangote Cement (+0.8%), Access Bank (+2.8%), and Zenith Bank (+0.2%). As a result of the positive rally, the All-Share Index inched higher 0.17 percent to bring the bourse to 39,252.19 points, while market capitalization stood at N20.45 trillion from N20.42 trillion the previous session; the outing dragged the market year-to-date performance to moderate at 2.53 percent.
There was an improvement in the level of market activity on Thursday and this was evidenced in the 54.8 percent and 40.3 percent growth in the total volume and total value of units traded, respectively, to 262.1 million units and N2.0 billion. Access Bank was the most traded stock during the trading session and it was followed by Transnational Corporation, Honeywell Flour, Mutual Benefits Assurance and Sovereign Trust Insurance, completing the list of the five most traded stocks in terms of volume of trades. With regards to the value of traded stocks, Access Bank, Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Holding Company, Dangote Cement and MTN Nigeria made up the top five performers.
Furthermore, most sectoral indices closed in tandem with the All-Share Index, save for the consumer goods and oil and gas indices that closed in the red zone losing 0.06 percent and 1.22 percent, respectively. On the other hand, the insurance index gained 1.1 percent, while the industrial goods and banking indices also reported upticks by 0.4 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively. The gains were majorly driven by price appreciations in Chams Plc, Prestige Assurance, Wema Bank, AXA Mansard Insurance, Access Bank, and Zenith Bank.
The bears maintained their grasp on the market breadth which pegged at 0.8x for the trading session as 18 counters in the losers’ chart were matched with 16 counters in the gainers’ chart. Chams Plc gained 4.76 percent to lead the gainer’s chart and was flanked by Prestige Assurance, Wema Bank, AXA Mansard Insurance, and Julius Berger to complete the gainers’ chart. From the rear of the chart Unity Bank, Oando Plc, Union Bank, FTN Cocoa Processors and Honeywell Flour populated the top losers’ chart.
Meanwhile, the NGX 30 Index increased by 0.17 percent to close at 1,618.39 points as against 1,615.61 points on the previous day. Market turnover closed with a traded volume of 121.12 million units. Julius Berger and Access Bank were the key gainers, while Union Bank and FCMB were the key losers.
