The equities market gained 0.27 percent on Thursday due to renewed interest in MTN Nigeria and ongoing interest in the stocks of Tier-one banks. Investors made a gain of N157 billion, or 0.27 percent, bringing the market capitalization, which had opened at N58.963 trillion, to N59.120 trillion at the closing.
As a result, the All-Share Index increased by 278.42 points, or 0.27 percent, to conclude at 104,562.06 as opposed to Wednesday’s closing of 104,283.64.Consequently, the index’s year-to-date (YTD) return increased to 39.84 percent.
The market was positively impacted by purchases of shares in Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO), Zenith Bank, Wema Bank, Transnational Corporation, Prestige Assurance, and Sovereign Trust Insurance, among other prominent merchants.
The market breadth also closed positive with 39 leading equities outnumbering 19 declining stocks on the floor of the Exchange. Meanwhile, Morison Industries Plc led the gainers table by 10 per cent to close at N1.76, Ikeja Hotel followed by 9.91 per cent to close at N6.43 per share.
Julius Berger gained 9.73 per cent to close at N66, while Omatek appreciated by 9.72 per cent to close at 79k. UPDC Real Estate Investment Trust went up by 9.57 per cent to close at N5.15 per share. On the other hand, FTN Cocoa led the losers’ table by 9.60 per cent to close at N1.60.ABC Transport trailed by 9.41 per cent to close at 77k, while Guinea Insurance lost 7.89 per cent to close at 35k. NGX Group shed 6.75 per cent to close at N21.40 and Chams declined by 6.34 per cent to close at N1.92 per share.
Analysis of the market activities showed trade turnover settled higher relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions up by 36.61 per cent.
A total of 623.08 million shares valued at N16.95 billion were exchanged in 10,257 deals, compared to 499.71 billion shares valued at N12.41 billion exchanged in 10,260 deals posted previously.
Zenith Bank led the activity chart in volume with 88.36 million shares valued at 3.89 billion, followed by GTCO which led in value with 78.68 million shares worth N4.11 billion.
Access Corporation sold 56.74 million shares worth N1.39 billion, UBA traded 54.94 million shares valued at N1.54 billion and Fidelity Bank transacted 50.78 million shares worth N504.23 million.
