The Nigerian equities market sustained gaining streak, as investors continue to take a position in some highly-capitalised stocks, resulting in a further rise in market capitalisation by N84billion.
Specifically, at the close of trading yesterday, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 160.43 absolute points, representing a growth of 0.61 per cent to close at 26,415.54 points.
Similarly, the overall market capitalisation size gained N84billion to close at N13.765trillion. The upturn was impacted by gains recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Nigerian Breweries, UAC of Nigeria (UACN), Access Bank, Ecobank Transnational Corporation (ETI), and FBN Holdings.
Analysts at Afrinvest Limited expect market gains in subsequent trading days of the week due to the opportunity for bargain hunting.
Market breadth closed positive as 22 stocks posted gains, while 10 stocks posted declines.
NEM Insurance and Royal Exchange recorded the highest price gain of 10 per cent each, to close at N1.87 and 22 kobo, respectively, while AXA Mansard Insurance followed with a gain 9.80 per cent to close at N1.68, per share.
FBN Holdings rose 9.71 per cent to close at N5.65, while ETI gained 9.26 per cent each, to close at N5.90, per share.
On the other hand, Ardova Plc led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent to close at N15.30, per share.
Deap Capital Management and Trust followed with a decline of 8.33 per cent to close at 33 kobo, while Consolidated Hallmark Insurance went down by 7.41 to close at 25 kobo, per share.
Chams lost 4.76 per cent to close at 20 kobo, while Law Union and Rock Insurance shed four per cent to close at 96 kobo, per share.
However, the total volume traded declined by 20.7 per cent to 307.72 million shares worth N2.81billion, and traded in 4.419 deals. Transactions in the shares of FBN Holdings topped the activity chart with 50.25 million shares valued at N279.76million. Zenith Bank followed with 49.37 million shares worth N966.29million, while United Bank for Africa (UBA) traded 32.38 million shares valued at N224.61 million.
Guaranty Trust Bank traded 24.82 million shares at N616.27 million, while Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp) transacted 20.05 million shares worth N17.08million.
