The Nigerian Exchange Limited has started the new month of September bullish with the equities market ending with a 0.11% growth.
Thursday’s positive sentiments were influenced by investor interests in BUA CEMENT PLC (+2.69%), UNITED BANK FOR AFRICA PLC (+1,39%) and ACCESS HOLDINGS PLC(+2.41%) which offset selloffs in ZENITH BANK PLC (-2.97%) and FBN HOLDINGS PLC (-3.59%).
Thus, the All-Share Index settled at 49,889.88 basis points as against Wednesday’s close of 49,836.51 basis points, while the market capitalisation gained ₦28.79bn to close at ₦26.91trn compared with yesterday’s close of ₦26.88trn.
The total volume traded stood at 229.12 million units, valued at ₦1.75 billion, and exchanged in 3,575 deals with STERLING BANK PLC, for the second straight session, leading the volume chart by 109.0m units, while GUARANTY TRUST HOLDING COMPANY PLC led the value chart in deals worth ₦680.0m.
Market breadth closed positive with 14 advancing issues outnumbering 12 declining ones.
Top on the advancers table is PHARMA-DEKO PLC with an opening price of ₦1.75k per share to end the day at ₦1.88k per share, gaining 0.13k or 7.43%.
Next is CONSOLIDATED HALLMARK INSURANCE PLC with an opening selling price of 0.60k per share, ending the day at 0.63k per share therefore gaining 0.03k or 5.00%.
Followed by UPDC PLC with an opening price of ₦1.00 per share to close at ₦1.05k per share, gaining 0.05k or 5.00%.
On the flip side is MUTUAL BENEFITS ASSURANCE PLC leading the losers chart with a fall from a previous selling price of 0.32k per share to end today at 0.29k per share, losing 0.03k or 9.38%.
Followed by CWG PLC which fell from 0.99k per share to 0.90k per share by 0.09k or 9.09%.
And TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATION PLC fell from ₦1.13k per share to ₦1.05k per share by 0.08k or 7.08%.
Analysing by sectors, the Industrial Goods (+1.0%), Oil & Gas (+0.3%), and Consumer Goods (+0.1%) indices advanced, while the Insurance (-0.5%), and Banking (-0.4%) indices declined.
Mercy Chukwudiebere
