On Monday, fresh investor interest in MTN Nigeria and Transcorp Hotel stocks boosted the Nigerian Exchange Ltd.’s (NGX) market capitalization by N29 billion.
Other main drivers of the entire market’s success included Berger Paints, PZ Cussons, Unity Bank, AIICO Insurance, and Nigerian Breweries, among other advanced stocks. The market capitalization, which began at N55,507 trillion, increased by N29 billion, or 0.05 percent, to end at N55.536 trillion.
The All-Share Index also gained by 0.05 percent, or 51 points, to 98,176.58, compared to 98,125.73 on Friday. As a result, the year-to-date (YTD) return increased to 31.30 per cent. However, the market breadth finished negative, with 28 losing shares outnumbering 13 gainers.
On the losers’ table, Champion led by 10 per cent to close at N2.97, and C&I Leasing Plc followed closely by 9.80 per cent to close at N9.80 per share. Sovereign Trust Insurance lost 9.76 per cent to close at 37k, Chams declined by 9.64 per cent to close at N1.50, while RT Briscoe depreciated by 9.62 per cent to close at 47k per share.
Conversely, McNichols Plc led the gainers’ table by 10 per cent to close at N1.10, and Berger Paints trailed by 9.72 per cent to close at N13.55 per share. Regency Alliance Insurance went up by 9.68 per cent to close at 34k, WAPIC advanced by 6.15 per cent to close at 69k and Cornerstone Insurance gained five per cent to close at N2.10 per share.
Also, the analysis of the market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 28.98 per cent. A total of 405.66 million shares valued at N6.69 billion were exchanged in 8,439 deals, as against 140.77 million shares worth N9.42 billion in 6,934 deals traded on Friday.
Access Corporation dominated the activity table in terms of volume and value, trading 201.31 million shares for N3.41 billion, while Transnational Corporation traded 38.21 million shares for N435.75 million.
Zenith Bank sold 15.26 million shares for N484.71 million, Nigerian Breweries traded 13.74 million shares for N316.28 million, and Jaiz Bank sold 13.68 million shares for N30.22 million.
Meanwhile, equities market analysts expect investors to trade carefully this week. Analysts projected that trading on the Exchange this week will be influenced by the conclusion of the anticipated Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, which took place from Monday to Tuesday.
They predicted that markets would respond to last week’s inflation numbers released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Cowry Asset Management experts reported that the market is expected to maintain a weak sentiment as investors continue to digest the latest economic data from the statistics bureau.
“Consequently, we anticipate cautious trading from domestic investors in the short term,” they said.
