At the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) on Thursday, equities trading sustained rally for the fourth consecutive day with a 0.22 percent upward movement in the All Share Index (ASI) to a new high of 72,455.83 points, primarily driven by the banking index’s bullish momentum.
Strong buying interest in key stocks such as Sterling Holdings, Access Holdings and United Bank for Africa contributed to the positive performance, resulting in a 0.22 percent increase in the market cap of listed equities.
Accordingly, the Month-to-Date (MTD) and Year-to-Date (YTD) returns printed +1.5 percent and +41.4 percent, respectively.
As a resultof the bullish trading outing, equities investors further earned N85.39 billion as the market capitalisation settled at N39.65 trillion at the end of the day under review.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was mixed, as 26 tickers gained relative to 25 losers.
Thursday’s gainers included Infinity Trust Mortgage Bank, John Holt, Ikeja Hotel, Daar Communication and eTranzact with their share prices rising by 9.83 percent, 9.73 percent, 9.20 percent, 7.69 percent and 7.69 percent, respectively.
On the downside, RT Briscoe, UPDRISCOE, UPDC Real Estate Investment Trust, Mutual Benefits Assurance and Omatek Ventures experienced adverse price movements, leading the laggards for the day as their share prices declined by 9.84 percent, 9.78 percent, 9.43 percent, 7.79 percent and 7.69 percent, respectively.
Across the sectoral front, investor sentiment appeared positive, with four out of the five sectors closing bullish on Thursday. The banking index led the gainers chart with a 1.90 percent increase, followed by the Industrial, Oil & Gas, and Consumer Goods indexes, which recorded mild gains of 0.02 percent, 0.02 percent, and 0.01 percent, respectively.
Conversely, the Insurance sector was the only decliner, down by 1.94 percent due to selloffs in the sector.
Trading activity on the NGX saw varied outcomes, with traded volume increasing by 3.09 percent to 446.58 million units, and the total deals for the day rising by 2.93 percent to 6,845 trades.
However, the total traded value decreased by 10.16 percent to N7.26 billion.
At the session’s close, Access Holdings emerged as the most traded security by volume and value, with 77.25 million units traded in 598 trades, amounting to N1.76 billion.
READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
