Stock market posts N83bn gain on positive trading

The Nigerian Exchange Limited closed in the green zone on Monday, with N83bn added to the wealth of investors.

This marked the third consecutive positive trading session in a market that had been marked by sell-offs and portfolio rebalancing activities.

At the end of the past week, the NGX All-Share Index reflected a one-week decline of 0.20 per cent and a four-week decline of 0.38 per cent, with an overall year-to-date gain of 30.04 per cent.

At the close of the day’s trading, the ASI of the local bourse increased 0.14 per cent to 97,373.94 points. The market capitalisation also rose by a similar percentage to settle at N59tn. The year-to-date return now stands at 30.23 per cent.

Sectoral performance was mixed: the banking, consumer goods, and industrial sectors declined by 0.81 per cent, 0.10 per cent, and 0.03 per cent, respectively, while the insurance and oil/gas sectors rose by 0.23 per cent and 0.16 per cent.

In total, 24 stocks advanced while 27 declined. The top gainers include Eunisell Interlinked which gained 10 per cent to close at N9.02, Aradel, which rose by 9.99 per cent to N533.80, JohnHolt shares appreciated by 9.98 per cent to N5.29, DeapCap gained 9.35 per cent to close at N1.17 and Custodian shares gained 8.62 per cent to close at N12.60 each.

On the losers chart were United Capital whose shares shed 9.78 per cent of their value to settle at N16.15, Sovereign Insurance lost 7.25 per cent to close trading at N0.64, Prestige Assurance dipped by 6.67 per cent to N0.56, Consolidated Hallmark Plc lost 5.88 per cent of its share value to close at N1.60 and Tripple G shed 5.49 per cent to close at N1.72.

Trading activity was generally subdued, with volumes and values dropping by 37.82 per cent and 20.21 per cent, respectively, though the number of trading deals increased by 9.84 per cent.

A total of 297.83 million shares were traded across 9,902 transactions, amounting to N7.52bn.

Sterling Financial Holding Company Plc led in volume, with 36.1 million shares worth N180.9m across 168 trades, followed by the shares of United Bank for Africa, with 33,496,744 worth N1.041bn traded in 876 deals,

About 24,595,015 units of AccessCorp shares valued at N590.09m were traded in 614 exchanges. 15,034,311 units of the shares of FlourMill worth N977.29m were traded in 61 deals and FBN Holdings, whose N150bn rights issue is still open, had 14,523,272 units of its shares worth N398.27m traded in 273 deals.

UBA led the value chart with N1.04bn worth of its shares traded.