By: Kehinde Akinseinde-Jayeoba, Lagos
On Wednesday, equities trading at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) was flat as the benchmark index hinged slightly higher with two basis points gain to close at 54,507.66 basis points.
Investors’ interest in Tier-1 banking names Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Holding Company and FBN Holdings managed to drive the market’s overall performance, having appreciated by 0.20 per cent, 0.20 per cent and 0.86 per cent, respectively.
Consequently, the year-to-date (YTD) return rose slightly to 6.35 per cent.
Investors, therefore, earned N6.18 billion as the market capitalisation close at N29.69 trillion by the end of trading activities at the local bourse.
Market breadth also closed flat as the local bourse saw buy-pressure on tickers such as Tripple Gee, Wapco, Transnational Corporation, United Bank for Africa and Guaranty Trust Holding Company as their respective share prices decreased by 10.00 per cent, 1.33 per cent, 0.80 per cent, 0.60 per cent and 0.20 per cent.
Despite the slight uptick in the benchmark index, most of the subindices tracked closed in red territory as the NGX Banking, NGX Consumer Goods, and NGX Oil/Gas indices decreased by 0.08 per cent, 0.06 per cent, and 0.05 per cent, respectively.
However, the NGX Insurance and NGX Industrial indices rose by 0.86per cent and 0.07 per cent, respectively. In the broader market, the NGX Premium and the NGX-30 index increased by 10 basis points and two basis points, respectively.
Analysis of market activities for the day showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 23.50 per cent. A total of 134.46 million shares valued at N4.36 billion were exchanged in 2,905 deals.
Guaranty Trust Holding Company led the volume chart with 42.35 million shares traded while Seplay Energies led the value chart in deals worth N1.18 billion.
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