Following a daily gain of over N508 billion, the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) stocks market capitalization increased to N40.2 trillion during the Santa Claus rally seen by the local exchange.
Money managers, Alpha hunters, and stockbrokers are banking big on the shares market’s success in what seems to be an all-around boom in 2023. The amount of purchasing demand has been so high that year-to-date returns have substantially outpaced inflation, affecting local currency prices throughout the markets.
Stockbrokers anticipate that the current rally will be continued as equity positioning becomes an investment alternative to resist increased inflation conditions, according to their separate market reports.
In the market, bullish sentiment continued to dominate the market as its All-Share Index gained 1.28% on the day, to close at 73,397.71 points.
The market recorded N507.60 billion worth of investors’ gain, even as the Exchange accounted for more gainers (37) than losers (24), Cowry Asset Limited said in a note.
Stockbrokers explained that investors locked in more funds into companies’ stocks such as MULTIVERSE, TRANSCORP, INFINITY, ETRANZACT and CAVERTON.
These stocks made the list of the top gainers for the day due to appreciable share price movements of 10.00%, 10.00%, 9.97%, 9.73% and 9.66%, respectively.
There was also a strong bargain hunting in AIRTELAFRI (+4.9%) and STANBIC (+9.3%). At the close of the trading session, the total volume traded increased by 34.8% to 554.64 million units, valued at NGN12.83 billion, and exchanged in 7,910 deals.
GTCO was the most traded stock by volume and value at 89.45 million units and N3.58 billion, respectively, changing hands in 362 deals.
Sectoral performance was broadly positive, as the Insurance (+0.8%), Banking (+0.8%), Industrial Goods (+0.1%) and Oil and Gas (+0.1%) indices all reflected the overall market performance.
On the other hand, the Consumer Goods (-0.2%) index was the sole loser of the day. As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive (1.6x), as 36 tickers gained relative to 22 losers.
MULTIVERSE (+10.0%) and TRANSCORP (+10.0%) recorded the highest gains of the day, while TANTALIZER (-10.0%) and THOMASWY (-9.9%) topped the losers’ list.
