The equities market ended Thursday’s transactions mixed, albeit with a bullish tilt as the benchmark index appreciated marginally by 0.02%.
Thus trading on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited, NGX saw the All-Share Index appreciating 10.82 basis points or 0.02% from 71,014.34 basis points to 71,025.16 basis points.
Likewise, the Market Capitalisation appreciated from ₦39,054trn to ₦39,060trn, gaining ₦6bn or 0.02%.
Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns rose +2.6% and 38.58% respectively.
Bargain hunting in MTN NIGERIA COMMUNICATIONS PLC (+0.21%), NIGERIAN BREWERIES PLC(+5.26%), and FLOUR MILLS NIG. PLC (+0.31%) offset the declines in ZENITH BANK PLC (-0.74%), DANGOTE SUGAR REFINERY PLC(-0.16%) and UNITED BANK FOR AFRICA PLC (-0.48%).
Analysis of today’s market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 28.93%, while the total volume traded advanced by 62.7%.
Thus, a total of 483.85 million units of shares valued at ₦4.38bn were exchanged in 6,545 deals.
REGENCY ASSURANCE PLC was the most traded stock by volume at 104.34 million units, while OANDO PLC was the most traded stock by value at ₦676.64 million.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative with declining issues outnumbering advancing ones, 32 stocks lost relative to 23 gainers.
DEAP CAPITAL MANAGEMENT & TRUST PLC topped the gainers by rising from 0.40k per share to 0.44k per share, gaining 0.04k or 10.00%. SECURE ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY PLC was next with a rise from 0.30k per share to 0.33k per share,gaining 0.03k or 10.00%. And C & I LEASING PLC trailed with a rise from ₦4.12k per share to ₦4.53k per share, gaining 0.41k or 9.95%.
On the reverse side however, ASSOCIATED BUS COMPANY PLC declined from ₦1.00 per share to 0.90k per share, shedding off 0.10k or 10.00%. E-TRANZACT INTERNATIONAL PLC followed with a drop from ₦7.55k per share to settle at ₦6.80k per share, losing 0.75k or 9.93%, while THOMAS WYATT NIG. PLC dropped from ₦3.80k per share to ₦3.46k per share, losing 0.34k or 8.95%.
Sectoral performance was mixed, as the Banking (-0.4%) and Oil & Gas (-0.2%) declined, while the Consumer Goods (+0.3%) and Insurance (+0.2%) indices recorded gains. Meanwhile, the Industrial Goods index closed flat.
Olusola Akintonde
