Kehinde Akinseinde-Jayeoba, Lagos
On Wednesday, equities trading at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) extended gains for the second consecutive session as the benchmark Index ended 0.08 per cent stronger to close at 51,178.41 basis points.
The bullish market was buoyed by buying interest in stocks such as Transnational Corporation, International Breweries, Eterna and United Capital as their respective share prices increased further by 9.85 per cent, 6.74 per cent, 3.48 per cent, and 1.74 per cent.
Accordingly, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns settled at -5.6 per cent and -0.1 per cent, respectively.
Investors, therefore, earned N17.75 billion as the market capitalisation settled at N27.87 trillion at the end of the day’s trading activities.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive as 25 tickers gained while eight tickers lost. On the performance board, Transnational Corporation and International Breweries topped the gainers’ list having appreciated in share value by 9.9 per cent and 6.7 per cent, respectively; while FTN Cocoa Processor and Prestige Insurance recorded the highest losses of the day after their respective share prices dipped by 3.9 per cent and 2.5 per cent.
Given the bullish sentiment, performance across sub-indices tracked was largely positive, except for the NGX Industrial and NGX Oil/Gas Indices, which declined by 1.33 per cent and 0.0 per cent, respectively.
The NGX Banking, NGX Insurance, and NGX Consumer Goods indexes climbed by 0.77 per cent, 0.67 per cent, and 0.10 per cent, respectively.
Meanwhile, trading activity nosedived, with total deals, volume, and value decreasing by 24.93 per cent, 30.08 per cent, and 20.77 per cent, respectively, to 3,505 trades, 1.2 billion units, and N3.98 billion.
In terms of volume, Transnational Corporation emerged as the most actively traded stock, with 1.14 billion shares worth N2.14 billion changing hands in 138 deals.
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