Kehinde Akinseinde-Jayeoba – Lagos
Equities trading at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) kicked off the week on a bullish note, with the All Share Index (ASI) rebounding by 0.14 percent to settle at 55,605.57 basis points.
Investor interest in telco heavyweight, MTN Nigeria Communication, alongside Lafarge Africa and United Bank for Africa kept the market in the positive territory as the share prices of these companies went up by 1.22 percent, 0.19 percent and 1.16 percent, respectively.
Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns settled at -0.4 percent and +8.5 percent, respectively.
Equities investors, therefore, gained N41.60 billion as the market capitalisation settled at N30.29 trillion at the end of trading activities on Monday.
However, as measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative, as 20 tickers lost relative to 16 gainers. On the performance board, CWG and FTN Cocoa Processor topped the losers’ list having depreciated in respective share prices by 7.1 percent and 6.7 percent, while Julius Berger and Unity Bank recorded the most significant gains of the day as their share prices appreciated by 10.0 percent and 9.3 percent, respectively.
Performance by sub-sector index pointed to a mixed sentiment as the NGX Banking and NGX Consumer Goods Indices moderated by 0.29.percent and 0.14 percent, respectively, while the NGX Insurance and NGX Industrial Indices rose by 0.11 percent and 0.01 percent, respectively.
The NGX Oil/Gas Index remained unchanged from the previous trading day. In the broader market, the NGX Premium and the NGX-30 index increased by 38 basis points and 13 basis points, respectively.
Analysis of market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 6.72 percent.
A total of 123.55 million shares valued at N2.48 billion were exchanged in 4,076 deals. Transnational Corporation led the volume chart with 11.80 million units traded while Geregu Power led the value chart in deals worth N604.27 million.
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