Equities trading on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited, NGX closed on Wednesday with a buildup on Tuesday’s gains, further expanding the benchmark Index by 3.13%.
Specifically, the All-Share Index grew from the 58,163.59 basis points reached on Tuesday to settle at 59,985.10 basis points at the close of Wednesday’s transactions. Therefore, expanding by 1,821.51 basis points or 3.13 percentage points.
Also, the market capitalisation gained ₦992 billion Naira or 3.13 percent to close at ₦32,662 trillion Naira as against yesterday’s ₦31,670 trillion Naira.
Sustained demands in telco heavyweight MTN NIGERIA COMMUNICATIONS PLC (+10.00%), Tier-1 banking names ZENITH BANK PLC (+9.74%), and GUARANTY TRUST HOLDING COMPANY PLC (+9.42%) as well as bargain-hunting in SEPLAT ENERGY PLC(+10.00%) were key drivers of the day’s bullish performance.
These gains outweighed the losses in DANGOTE CEMENT PLC (-0.98%), BUA CEMENT PLC (-6.52%), JULIUS BERGER NIG. PLC. (-4.46%) and ARDOVA PLC (-5.06%).
Analysis of today’s market activities showed that a total of 1.30 billion units of shares valued at ₦21.08 billion were exchanged in 11,947 deals and again, UNITED BANK FOR AFRICA PLC led the volume chart with 230.76 million units traded, even as GUARANTY TRUST HOLDING COMPANY PLC yet again led the value chart in deals worth ₦4.20bn.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment closed positive with 70 advancing issues outnumbering 13 declining ones.
Leading the gainers log is DANGOTE SUGAR REFINERY PLC with an upward move from a previous selling price of ₦23.00 to ₦25.30k per share, gaining ₦2.30k or 10.00%. FBN HOLDINGS PLC trailed with a gain of ₦1.45k or 10.00% from ₦14.50k per share to ₦15.95k per share. And INTERNATIONAL BREWERIES PLC rose from ₦5.00 per share to ₦5.50k per share, gaining 0.50k or 10.00%.
On the laggard’s table however, PHARMA-DEKO PLC. topped with a fall from ₦2.28k per share to ₦2.06k per share, losing 0.22k or 9.65%. Followed by CWG PLC shedding off 0.17k or 9.44% to close at ₦1.63k per share from ₦1.80k per share. And N NIG. FLOUR MILLS PLC declined from ₦13.85k per share to ₦12.65k per share, losing ₦1.20k or 8.66%.
Analysing by sectors, the Banking (+26.5%) and Insurance (+23.0%) indices recorded the most significant gains, followed by the Oil & Gas (+16.0%), and Consumer Goods (+4.1%) indices. The Industrial Goods (-1.1%) index was the sole loser of the day.
