The local stock market ended the trading session on a bullish note on Wednesday, with the All-Share Index (ASI) rising by 0.05 per cent to close at 98,944.42 basis points.
Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns printed +0.4 per cent and +32.3 per cent, respectively.
This gain recorded at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) boosted market capitalization by 0.05 per cent to N59.96 trillion, adding N31.4 billion to investors’ portfolios and pushing the year-to-date (YTD) return to 32.33 per cent.
By the close of the session, 31 stocks advanced, outnumbering the 16 decliners. On the performance board notable gainers included Eunisell Interlinked, UNISELL, Oando, Unilever Nigeria, McNicholas and Regal Insurance having appreciated in share values by 10.00 percent, 10.00 percent, 10.00 percent, 9.79 percent and 9.62 percent, respectively; while notable losers were Aradel Holdings, Northern Nigeria Flour Mills, Consolidated Hallmark Holdings, UACN Property Development Company and Ellah Lakes after their respective share prices dipped by 9.99 percent, 9.93 percent, 6.12 percent, 5.81 percent, and 4.31 per cent.
Sectoral performance was mostly positive, as the banking, consumer goods, and industrial goods sectors posted gains of 2.41 percent, 0.31 percent, and 0.05 percent, respectively, while the insurance sector declined by 0.42 percent, and the oil/gas sector remained flat.
Trading activity was subdued, with volume and value dropping by 51.99 percent and 66.63 percent, respectively.
However, the number of deals surged by 14.01 percent, as 283.74 million units were traded across 7,966 deals, valued at N8.29 billion.
United Bank for Africa led the volume with 66 million units worth N1.8 billion across 860 deals.
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