The Nigerian equities market began this week’s trading activities on a positive, building on gains from last week.
Consequently, the benchmark index closed on Monday at 48,543.36 basis points, 0.20% or 83.81 basis stronger than Friday’s close of 48,459.65 basis points, while market capitalization gained ₦45bn or 0.20% to close at ₦26.170trn from ₦26,125trn.
This is due to investors’ buying interests in industrial heavyweights such as DANGOTE CEMENT PLC which increased 0.14% and LAFARGE AFRICA PLC which grew 5.28%.
Also, buying interest in Tier-1 banks, GUARANTY TRUST HOLDING COMPANY PLC which advanced by 1.65%, UNITED BANK FOR AFRICA PLC which upped 1.23%, ZENITH BANK PLC which increased 0.99%, STANBIC IBTC HOLDINGS PLC which gained 6.32%, and FBN HOLDINGS COMPANY PLC which grew 0.42%.
These gains helped to outweigh losses in BUA CEMENT PLC which fell 3.89%, ACCESS HOLDINGS PLC that declined by 1.00% and PRESCO PLC which fell by 2.18%, keeping the market in the green.
A total of 328.39m shares valued at ₦4.04bn that were exchanged in 5,711 deals as ZENITH BANK PLC leads the volume and value charts with 35.84m units traded in deals worth ₦912.15m.
Market breadth closed positive as 43 stocks posted gains while 16 stocks declined.
UPDC REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST leads the gainers with an upward move from ₦3.50k per share to ₦3.85k per share, gaining 0.35k or 10.00%.
Next is IKEJA HOTELS PLC with a 0.14k or 9.93% increase from ₦1.41k per share to ₦1.55k per share.
Followed by ETERNA PLC which advanced from ₦6.65k per share to ₦7.31k per share, by 0.66k or 9.92%.
On the losing chart is UNITY BANK PLC leading with a fall from a previous selling price of 0.50k per share to 0.47k per share, losing 0.03k or 6.00%.
Following right after is ACADEMY PRESS PLC which fell 0.07k or 5.98% to ₦1.10k per share from ₦1.17k per share.
While JAPAUL GOLD & VENTURES PLC lost 0.02k or 5.88% to close at 0.32k per share from 0.34k per share.Q `
Sectoral performance was broadly positive, as Consumer Goods index gained 2.5%, Oil & Gas index gained 1.4%, Insurance index gained 0.4% and Banking index gained 0.3%.
The Industrial Goods index was the sole loser of the day losing 1.1%.
