By Omobayo Azeez
In line with earlier predictions by experts that the Nigerian equities market would record pockets of gains towards the close of the year, the market sustained bullish trend on Monday with a gain of N93 billion.
As the last week of 2019, which will also creep into 2020 with two days opened, the market surged by 0.73 per cent as the All Shares Index (ASI) gained 192.86 point to close as 26,609.34 basis points.
Similarly, building on the positive record of the previous session, market capitalisation closed higher at N12.846 trillion with the N93 billion profit of the day.
Consequently, Month-to-Date (MtD) and Year-to-Date (MtD) losses moderated to -1.45 per cebry and -15.34 per cent respectively.
Meanwhile, the total volume of trades increased by 72.04 per cent to 382.81 million units, valued at N7.19 billion, and exchanged hands in 3,212 deals.
According to the trading record obtained from the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Transcorp was the most traded stock by volume at 138.90 million units, while Dangote Cement Plc was the most traded stock by value at N1.58 million.
Across sectorial performance, all sectors indices close positive, save for the banking index which slid by -0.70 per cent index.
On the flip side, the oil & gas index topped the list +5.08 gain, followed closely by the Consumer Goods (+2.13 per cent), Industrial Goods (+0.42 per cent), and Insurance (+0.45 per cent), respectively.
Market sentiment, as measured by market breadth, was positive, as 24 tickers recorded gains relative to 12 losers, while seven other closed on unchanged prices.
Seplat PLC led the gainers’ with N48.3 gain to close at N598 per share. Nestlé, Nigerian Breweries, Dangote Cement and UPDCredit gained N39.90, N1.80, N1.50 and N0.47 to close at NN1,469.90, N59.75, N141.5 and N4.70 per share respectively.
Conversely, UBN shed N0.65 to close at N6.15, topping the decliners’ list. CI Leasing lost N0.60 to close at N5.4 pee share. Access slid by N0.55 to close at N9.40 per share while Learn Africa and Transex PR shed N0.12 and N0.08 to close at N1.13 and N0.92 per share respectively.
