Trading of equities has again ended on a bullish note with the benchmark index advancing by 0.23%.
Tuesday’s transactions on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited, NGX, saw the All-Share Index rise by 225.06 basis points or 0.23% from 97,747.27 basis points to 97,972.33 basis points.
Similarly, the market capitalization appreciated by 0.23% or ₦136 billion to close at ₦59,367 trillion from ₦59,231 trillion.
Consequently, the year-to-date (YTD) return increased to 31.02%, while the Month-to-Date returns settled at +0.3%.
Investors’ interest in LAFARGE AFRICA PLC, MTN NIGERIA COMMUNICATIONS PLC, GUARANTY TRUST HOLDING COMPANY PLC and ZENITH BANK PLC were primary drivers to today’s positive market performance.
However, the total volume of shares traded today declined by 19.2% while trade turnover settled higher by 20.33%.
Thus, a total of 333.95m shares valued at ₦6.42bn were exchanged in 9,187 deals where ACCESS HOLDINGS PLC was the most traded stock by volume and value at 37.84 million units and ₦910.19 million, respectively.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive with 35 advancing issues outnumbering 24 declining ones.
LAFARGE AFRICA PLC topped the gainers chart with a rise from ₦46.00 per share to ₦50.60k per share, gaining ₦4.60k or 10.00%. Next is UNILEVER NIGERIA PLC. with a rise from ₦24.50k per share to ₦26.95k per share, gaining ₦2.45k or 10.00%. And, S C O A NIG. PLC. rose from ₦1.71k per share to ₦1.88k per share, gaining 0.17k or 9.94%.
On the losers table however is P Z CUSSONS NIGERIA PLC. leading with a fall from ₦24.95k per share to ₦22.50k per share, shedding off -₦2.45k or -9.82%. THE INITIATES PLC followed with a fall from ₦2.30k per share to ₦2.10k per share, losing -0.20k or -8.70%. And BERGER PAINTS PLC took the third biggest loser position with a drop from ₦18.80k per share to ₦17.35k per share, depreciating by -₦1.45k or -7.71%.
Sectoral performance was positive as the Insurance (+1.9%), Industrial Goods (+0.6%), Oil & Gas (+0.4%), Banking (+0.3%) and Consumer Goods (+0.3%) indices all inched higher.
