At the close of Wednesday’s trading activities on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited, NGX, the Equities Market closed marginally higher with the benchmark Index growing 0.08% in transactions that saw a total of 1.27bn shares valued at ₦3.98bn being exchanged in 3,505 deals.
The day’s performance is again being attributed primarily to investors interest in TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATION PLC stocks which gained 9.9% while still remaining the most traded stock by volume and value at 1.14 billion units and ₦2.14 billion, respectively.
This is also aided by gains in INTERNATIONAL BREWERIES PLC (+6.7%) and Tier-1 banking names ZENITH BANK PLC (+0.23%), STANBIC IBTC HOLDINGS PLC(+3.2%) and ACCESS HOLDINGS PLC(+1.69%) offset losses in LAFARGE AFRICA PLC (-1.47%), NIGERIAN BREWERIES PLC(-1.50%) and FCMB GROUP PLC. (-0.86%).
Thus, the NGX All-Share Index gained 39.49 basis points to settle at 51,178.41 basis points as against yesterday’s 51,138.92 basis points while market capitalization gained ₦17.75bn to close at ₦27.871trn as compared to Tuesday’s ₦27.853trn.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive as 25 advancing issues outnumbered 8 declining ones.
TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATION PLC (+9.9%) and INTERNATIONAL BREWERIES PLC (+6.7%) topped the gainers’ list, while FTN COCOA PROCESSORS PLC (-3.9%) and PRESTIGE ASSURANCE PLC (-2.5%) recorded the highest losses of the day.
Performance across sectors were largely positive, as the Banking (+0.8%), Insurance (+0.7%), Consumer Goods (+0.1), and Oil and Gas (+0.1%) indices posted gains, while the Industrial Goods (-0.1%) index declined.
