Categories: Business

Banking stocks lift local bourse marginally, as investors earn N12bn

Equities trading at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) on Thursday was impressive as the benchmark index closed higher by 0.01 per cent.

Bank stocks were the major movers as gains as the shares of Access Corporation, Zenith Bank and Guaranty Trust Holding appreciated by the end of trading activities at the NGX.

The Share Index (ASI) marginally gained one basis point to settle at 51,7563.73 basis points from its previous close of 51,556.54 basis points.

This outing pegged both the month-to-date and year-to-date performance to stand at 0.49 per cent and 20.71 per cent from their previous close of 0.45 per cent and 20.76 per cent respectively.

Investors, therefore, earned N22 billion as the market capitalisation settled at N27.807 trillion, representing a 0.04 per cent increase from the N27.795 trillion it stood at the end of the previous trading session.

Bulls maintained dominance over the market breadth with 15 counters in the gainers’ chart pitted against 10 counters in the losers’ chart.

Academy Press gained 9.55 per cent to become the best performing stock in the session, closely followed by NAHCO, FTN Cocoa, Honeywell Flour Mills and Ikeja Hotel. From the rear of the chart, RTBriscoe, UPDC, Regal Insurance, Japaul Gold and FBN Holdings populated the top five losers’ chart.

Key sectoral indices closed in the same direction as the ASI, save for NGX Consumer Goods and NGX Insurance sectors that shed weight while NGX Industry, NGX Growth and NGX ASEM sectors closed flat.

Market activity as measured by the volume of trades improved in the session, with daily traded volume standing at 143,288 million units, representing a 5.94 per cent uptick from a volume of 135.259 million units traded in the previous session.

The value of those traded stocks inched up by 22.07 per cent in the session to stand at 1.756 billion as against a value of 1.439 billion recorded in the previous trading session.

Jaiz Bank dominated the volume charts as the top traded stock by volume for the trading session, followed by Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO), Sterling Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA) and NAHCO to complete the list of the five most traded stocks by volume.

With regards to the value of traded stocks, Airtel Africa also took the lead of the top five performers, flanked by GTCO, Dangote Cement, Zenith Bank and UBA.

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