Equities trading at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) sustained its upward momentum this week, as the All-Share Index rose by 1.19 per cent to close at 107,847.62 basis points, bringing the year-to-date return to 4.78 per cent.
At the local bourse on Wednesday buying interest in Dangote Cement and Transnational Corporation caused the increase in the benchmark index after these shares appreciated by 3.9 per cent and 10.0 per cent, respectively.
Market capitalisation followed suit, increasing by 1.19 percent to N67.29 trillion, adding N794.2 billion in gains to the equities market by the session’s close.
Consequently, the Month-to-Date returns and Year-to-Date returns settled higher at 3.2 percent and +4.8 percent, respectively.
On Wednesday, investor sentiment remained strong, reflected in positive market breadth, with 51 stocks advancing while 16 declined.
On the performance board, leading the gainers were Ikeja Hotel VFD Group, Honeywell Flour Mills, Transnational Hotel and Eternal posting gains of 10.00 percent, 10.00 percent, 9.99 percent, 9.99 percent, and 9.93 percent, respectively.
On the flip side, CWG, Regal Insurance, Lasaco Assurance, Royal Exchange and SCOA topped the list of decliners.
Also, sectoral performance was largely positive, with the Banking, Consumer Goods, Oil & Gas, Industrial Goods, and Commodity sectors gaining 0.49 percent, 1.44 percent, 0.20 per cent, 2.11 percent, and 1.38 percent, respectively.
However, the Insurance sector dipped slightly by 0.04 per cent.
Despite the market’s overall strength, trading activity slowed, as the number of deals, total volume, and transaction value declined by 1.19 percent, 7.52 per cent, and 15.38 per cent, respectively, with 15,376 deals recorded at a total value of N9.95 billion and a volume of 442.62 million units.
Sterling Financial Holdings was the most traded stock by volume at 49.61 million units, while Zenith Bank was the most traded stock by value at N1.31 billion.
ALSO READ TOP STORIES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
