NGX Benchmark Index Grows By 0.99%

Thursday’s trading of equities on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited, NGX ended with the benchmark index appreciating by 0.99% or 733.94 basis points to settle at 74,502.58 basis points up from Wednesday’s 73,768.64 basis points.

Also, the Market Capitalisation rose by 0.99% or ₦402 billion from previous ₦40,367 trillion to close at ₦40,769 trillion.

Today’s gains are attributed to investor’s interests in telco heavyweight, MTN NIGERIA COMMUNICATIONS PLC (+4.58%), as well as tier-1 bank names; ZENITH BANK PLC (+0.53%) and STANBIC IBTC HOLDINGS PLC (+8.20%).

These gains helped to offset the losses in GUARANTY TRUST HOLDINGS COMPANY PLC(-0.50%), UNITED BANK FOR AFRICA PLC(-1.57%) and ACCESS HOLDINGS PLC (-0.22%).

Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns increased to +4.4% and +45.4%, respectively.

Analysis of today’s market activities showed that the value of transactions fell by 56.20% while the total volume traded declined by 14.3%.

A total of 371.02 million units, valued at ₦5.47 billion, were exchanged in 8,215 deals where JAIZ BANK PLC was the most traded stock by volume at 49.40 million units, while ZENITH BANK PLC was the most traded stock by value at ₦1.06 billion.

Market breadth closed positive with 36 advancing issues outnumbering 27 declining ones.

KEJA HOTEL PLC (+10.0%) and MULTIVERSE MINING AND EXPLORATION PLC (+9.96%) topped the gainers’ list, while U.A.C.N. PLC (-10.00%) and JOHN HOLT PLC. (-9.73%) recorded the highest losses of the day.

On sectors, the Insurance (+2.1%), Industrial Goods (+1.1%) and Consumer Goods (+0.1%) indices recorded gains, while the Banking (-0.2%) index declined. The Oil & Gas index closed flat.

Olusola Akintonde