Kehinde Akinseinde-Jayeoba
At the end of Thursday’s trading session at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX), the equities market sustained its upward trend as the All-Share Index rose by 0.04 per cent to close at 55,822.14 basis points.
Gains in Dangote Cement and Guaranty Trust Holding Company impacted the overall equities market for the day as the values of these high-capitalised stocks appreciated by 1.05 per cent and 0.57 per cent, respectively.
As a result, the market remains on track for a weekly gain. The year-to-date (YTD) return rose to 8.92 per cent.
Equities investors, therefore earned N11.44 billion as the market capitalization settled higher at N30.41 trillion at the end of the day’s trading sessions.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative, as 19 tickers lost relative to 12 gainers. On the performance board, Conoil and NCR Nigeria topped the losers’ list having depreciated in share value by 9.9 per cent, respectively, while Transnational Corporation and Royal Exchange recorded the highest gains of the day after their respective share prices appreciated by 8.7 per cent and 5.6 per cent.
Sectorial performance was weak as three out of five sub-sector gauges were tracked in the red territory; the NGX Banking, NGX Insurance, and NGX Oil/Gas Indices fell by 0.01 per cent, 0.49 per cent, and 2.01 per cent, respectively. On the other hand, the NGX Consumer Goods and the NGX Industrial indices climbed by 0.04 per cent and 0.53 per cent, respectively.
In the broader market, the NGX Premium and the NGX-30 indices increased by 17 and 15 basis points, respectively. Analysis of market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 13.42 per cent. A total of 311.48 million shares valued at N3.09 billion were exchanged in 3,627 deals.
Transnational Corporation led the volume chart with 179.84 million units traded while Guaranty Trust Holding Company led the value chart in deals worth N1.10 billion.
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