Onome Amuge
Nigeria’s stock market advanced on Tuesday, with a handful of mid-cap stocks leading a rally that lifted the overall market capitalisation by N465 billion, extending a bullish run that has seen equities outperform many emerging market peers this year.
The benchmark All-Share Index of the Nigerian Exchange rose 0.23 per cent to 142,710.48 points, pushing year-to-date returns to 38.65 per cent. Market capitalisation climbed to N90.58 trillion, up from N90.1 trillion on Monday, despite a negative market breadth as more stocks fell than gained.
The climb was driven by strong performances from UPDC Plc, Nigerian Enamelware Plc, and Eterna Plc, which rose 9.98 per cent, 9.97 per cent, and 9.95 per cent respectively. UPDC closed at N6.61 per share, nearly doubling from N3.30 previously, underscoring renewed investor appetite for real estate-linked equities. Nigerian Enamelware ended the day at N38.60, reflecting heightened demand for consumer goods plays. Oil marketer Eterna closed at N33.70, supported by optimism in the energy sector following higher global crude prices.
Other notable gainers included Aradel Holdings and Transnational Corporation (TIP), both of which drew buying interest from institutional and retail investors positioning for longer-term growth.
Despite the positive headline figures, market sentiment was mixed. Out of 147 traded securities, 32 declined compared with 28 that advanced, while 87 remained flat. Union Dicon Salt led the laggards, plunging 10 per cent to N8.10 per share, followed by Champion Breweries, which shed 7.09 per cent to N13.75, and Royal Exchange Assurance, which lost 5.96 per cent to close at N2.05.
Sectoral performance was uneven. The Oil and Gas index was up 3.66 per cent, buoyed by Eterna and Aradel, while the Commodity index rose 1.79 per cent. By contrast, Insurance fell 0.35 per cent, Consumer Goods slipped 0.19 per cent, Banking declined 0.14 per cent, and Industrials edged down 0.11 per cent.
Trading activity surged, with volume jumping 223.09 per cent to 1.24 billion units, while transaction value rose 156.72 per cent to N29.82 billion. However, the total number of deals slipped 0.37 per cent to 28,009, indicating fewer but larger transactions. Fidelity Bank was the most actively traded stock by both volume and value, exchanging 793 million shares worth N15.8 billion across 831 deals. NCR Nigeria followed with 66 million shares traded, while Zenith Bank recorded 49 million shares worth N3.4 billion. Lafarge Wapco also attracted significant attention with N1.2 billion in turnover.
