Kehinde Akinseinde-Jayeoba
The equities market at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) on Thursday settled higher as the benchmark index advanced by 0.61 per cent to close at 54,646.38 basis points.
Specifically, gains in BUA Foods, Wapco; as well as Tier-1 banking names, Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Holding Company and FBN Holdings drove the market’s overall performance as the share prices of these companies appreciated by 8.87 per cent, 1.18 per cent, 0.60 per cent, 0.40 per cent and 0.43 per cent, respectively.
Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns increased to +2.6 per cent and +6.6 per cent, respectively.
Investors, therefore, added N180.23 billion to their overall investment as market capitalization settled higher at N29.77 trillion by the end of trading activities at the local bourse on Thursday.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was largely positive, as 28 tickers gained relative to nine losers.
On the performance board, MRS and McNicholas recorded the highest gains of the day after their respective share prices advanced by 9.9 per cent and 9.1 per cent, while Neimeth Pharmaceutical and CHI Plc topped the losers’ list having declined in share value by 6.5 per cent and 6.2 per cent, respectively.
Given the bullish mood, performance across sub-sector gauges was positive, as the NGX Banking, NGX Insurance, NGX Consumer Goods, NGX Oil/Gas, and the NGX Industrial indices rose by 0.39 per cent, 0.40 per cent, 3.79 per cent, 0.39 per cent, and 0.06 per cent, respectively. In the broader market, the NGX Premium and the NGX-30 index increased by 12 basis points and 55 basis points, respectively.
However, activities at NGX were unimpressive as analysis of the market for the day under review showed that trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 52.92 per cent.
A total of 142.04 million shares valued at N1.85 billion were exchanged in 2,651 deals. United Bank for Africa led the volume chart with 32.42 million units traded while Zenith Bank led the value chart in deals worth N11.53 million.
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