By: Kehinde Akinseinde-Jayeoba – Lagos
Equities trading at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX), on Wednesday, returned to positive territory, as the benchmark Index closed 0.23 per cent higher to settle at 54,315.53 basis points.
The market’s performance was bolstered by renewed investor interests in Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Holding Company, Access Corporation and Geregu having appreciated on respective share value by 0.80 per cent, 0.80 per cent, 0.55 per cent and 10.0 per cent.
Consequently, the year-to-date performance of the index increased to 5.98 per cent.
Equities investors, therefore, earned N68.76 billion as the market capitalisation settled higher at N29.59 trillion at the end of equities trading at the local bourse.
Market breadth also closed positive with advancing issues outnumbering declining ones. On the performance board, Geregu topped 12 others on the leader’s log having appreciated in share value by 10.0 per cent, while Wapic Insurance led eight others on the laggard’s table as the share price of the insurance company declined by 6.82 per cent.
Performance across sub-sector gauges was positive, as the NGX Banking and NGX Consumer Goods indices rose by 0.25 per cent and 0.01 per cent, respectively. On the flip side, the NGX Insurance Index lost 0.79 per cent, while the NGX Oil/Gas and the NGX Industrial indices stayed unchanged from the previous days.
In the broader market, the NGX Premium and NGX-30 indices increased by five and nine basis points, respectively.
Meanwhile, analysis of market activities showed that trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 74.82 per cent.
A total of 129.91 million shares valued at N3.92 billion were exchanged in 2,678 deals. AIICO Insurance led the volume chart with 16.18 million units traded while Seplat Energies led the value chart in deals worth N1.10 billion.
