Positive Trading Lifts Equity Market By N464bn

Investors in the Nigerian equity market gained N35bn at the close of the trading session on the Nigerian Exchange Limited on Tuesday.

This signalled an improvement in the figure of gains from Monday, which was about N9bn.

Both the All-Share Index which measures the movement of stocks on the exchange and the market capitalisation rose by 0.09 per cent to close at 72,470.1 basis points and N39.656tn respectively.

The major drivers of the day’s trend were the stocks of United Bank for Africa, Zenith Bank Plc, Access Holdings Plc, Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc, and FBN Holdings.

Market Breadth, a measure of investors’ sentiment, improved compared to the previous day which resulted in 36 gainers and 13 losers.

Transaction volume increased to 411.21 million units from 324.25 million trades valued at N6.94bn from 6,870 deals. The number of stocks traded at the end of today’s trading session stood at 121.

Leading the gainers’ chart were the stocks of Infinity Trust Mortgage Bank and Caverton Offshore Support Plc, which both appreciated by 10 per cent to close at N3.41 and N1.76 per share respectively.

Northern Nigerian Flour Mills also gained 9.42 per cent to close at N42.20, RT Briscoe gained 9.09 per cent to close at N0.60 and The Initiates Plc which had seen increased activities in its shares this week gained 8.26 per cent to close at N1.18.

A substantial shareholder in the waste manager and industrial cleaners firm, DVCF Oil & Gas Plc, sold off about 1.70 million units of its shares at N1.15 per unit earlier this month according to filings with the NGX and another substantial shareholder of the firm, Afolayan Olajide, purchased two million units of its shares at N1.15 each. The share acquisition amounts to about N2.3m.

On the losers’ chart were Omatek which lost 10 per cent to close at N0.63 per unit, Prestige Assurance Plc lost 9.62 per cent to close at N0.47, ETranZact lost 9.60 per cent to close at N5.65, Stanbic Holdings’ shares dipped by 9.08 per cent to close at N59.10 and real estate firm, UPDC lost 9.02 per cent to close at N1.21 per unit.

UPDCREIT was the most active stock of the day with 42,029,284 units worth N187.03m exchanged in 50 trades, UBA had 34,658,943 units of its shares valued at N848.47m traded in 491 exchanges, VeritasKap saw 27,706,519 units valued at N9.864m traded in 29 deals.

AccessCorp had 27,567,821 units worth N611.80, exchanged in 365 deals and 25,593,880 units of FCMB shares worth N183.17m were traded in 147 deals.

Punch news/Jamiu Ogunshe