Wednesday’s trading on the Nigerian equities market edged higher as the All-Share Index advanced by a 0.39% to close at 49,836.51 points, while the market capitalisation gained ₦104.54bn to close at ₦26.88trn.
Today’s transaction, which also marked the last trading session of the month, was influenced by gains in BUA FOODS PLC (+4.48%), FBN HOLDINGS PLC (+2.29%), ACCESS HOLDINGS PLC (+1.84%) and LAFARGE AFRICA PLC (+4.60%).
Analysis of today’s market activities showed that a total of 367.34m shares valued at ₦3.24bn were exchanged in 3,725 deals.
STERLING BANK PLC was the most traded stock by volume with 162.45m units of shares traded, while MTN NIGERIA COMMUNICATIONS PLC, for the second straight session, led the value chart in value worth ₦873.29bn.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive with 20 advancing stocks outnumbering the 12 decliners.
GUINNESS NIG PLC (+9.88%) and CAVERTON OFFSHORE SUPPORT GRP PLC (+9.62%) topped the gainers’ list, while CONSOLIDATED HALLMARK INSURANCE PLC (-7.69%) and UNILEVER NIGERIA PLC (-7.22%) recorded the most significant losses of the day.
Sectoral performance was broadly positive, as the Consumer Goods (+1.8%), Banking (+0.6%), Industrial Goods (+0.4%), and Oil & Gas (+0.3%) indices advanced, while the Insurance (-1.0%) index closed in the red.
Hauwa Abu
