After the two–day holiday to mark the Eid-el Kabir celebration, investors’ renewed appetite in some blue-chip firms, especially in Total and Cutix buoyed transactions on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) yesterday, causing market capitalisation to increase by N330 billion.
Specifically, at the close of trading yesterday, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 632.87 points, representing an increase of 1.67 per cent, to close at 38,585.52 points. Similarly, the overall market capitalisation value rose by N330 billion, to close at N20.104 trillion.
The improved performance was driven by price appreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks amongst which are, Total Nigeria, Cutix, Dangote Cement, Vitafoam Nigeria and Oando.
Vetiva Dealings and Brokerage said: “We expect to see market sentiments driven by earnings release and other company-specific information like we saw in Oando.
“Barring significant loss in any of the high-cap counters in tomorrow’s session, we anticipate the market closing the week in the green as investors continue to trade in line with the corporate earnings release.”
Analysts at Afrinvest Limited said: “We expect the market to extend the positive performance to the last trading session of the week, driven by positive earnings release by companies.”
The market breadth closed positive as 22 stocks gained while 12 others recorded price depreciation. Total Nigeria recorded the highest price gain of 10 per cent to close at N184.80 kobo while Cutix followed with a gain 9.77 per cent to close at N4.38 kobo. Oando appreciated by 9.73 per cent to close at N3.61 kobo.
Dangote Cement rose by 7.83 per cent to close at N248.00 kobo. Courteville Business Solutions also gained 4.55 per cent to close at 23 kobo.
On the other hand, AIICO Insurance led the losers’ chart by 8.70 per cent to close at N1.05 kobo while Sovereign Trust Insurance followed with a decline of 6.45 per cent to close at 29 kobo, while Veritas Kapital Assurance lost four per cent to close at 24 kobo. Livestock Feeds lost 3.55 per cent to close at N1.90 kobo while Ardova shed 3.23 per cent to close at N15.00 kobo.
Meanwhile, the total volume of trades fell by 58.3 per cent to 203.111 million units, valued at N1.724 billion, and exchanged in 3,969 deals. Transactions in the shares of Sterling Bank topped the activity chart with 22.487 million shares valued at N33.803 million. United Capital followed with 16.901 million shares worth N115.108 million, while Fidelity Bank traded 14.062 million shares valued at N33.688 million.
Wema Bank traded 13.960 million shares valued at N12.244 million, while Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO) transacted 13.301 million shares worth N392.122 million.
