Equities investors earn N471.4bn as market opens week with 0.79% increase

Equities trading at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) began the week on a positive note, as the All-Share Index climbed 0.79% to close at 104,418.95 basis points, raising the year-to-date return to 1.45%.

Market capitalization followed suit, increasing by 1.24% to N64.44 trillion, buoyed by the listing of 4,705,800,290 ordinary shares of Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc at N44.50 per share. This added N471.4 billion in gains to the equities market by the end of the session.

Consequently, the year-to-date return settled at +1.5%.

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On Monday, investor sentiment was optimistic, with 38 gainers outpacing 30 losers. Leading the gainers were Beta Glass, RT Briscoe, Access Holdings, Chellaram, and Sky Aviation Handling Company, advancing by 9.98%, 9.92%, 9.88%, 9.83%, and 9.80%, respectively.

Conversely, the laggards included MRS, Transcorp Hotel, Eunisell Interlinked, John Holt, and Caverton Offshore Support Group.

Sectoral performance was mixed: the Banking, Consumer Goods, and Commodity indices rose by 4.71%, 1.74%, and 0.39%, respectively, while the Insurance, Oil & Gas, and Industrial Goods indices fell by 0.95%, 0.89%, and 0.03%, respectively.

Trading activity was strong, with the number of deals and total value increasing by 52.42% and 54.72% to 17,196 deals and N13.3 billion, respectively.

However, total volume declined by 9.01% to 518.28 million units. Access Holdings was the most traded stock by volume, with 51 million units exchanged across 1,053 deals, while Zenith Bank led in value, contributing N1.7 billion to the day’s transactions.