Business

Equities investors gain N35.5bn as bullish sentiment persists

Bullish sentiments persisted at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) on Thursday as investors’ interest in MTN Nigeria Communication and some financial stocks triggered a 1.6 per cent increase in the benchmark index.

Thus, the All Share Index (ASI) settled at 65,263.06 basis points at the end of the day’s trading sessions, while the Year-to-Date return increased to +27.3 per cent.

The performance was primarily driven by rebounds in index heavyweight, MTN Nigeria alongside Tier-1 banking names Zenith Bank and Guaranty Trust Bank Holding Company, as these large capitalised company’s share prices appreciated by 6.46 per cent, 0.30 per cent and 2.25 per cent, respectively.

With the bullish outing at the local bourse, equities investors gained N35.52 trillion as the market capitalisation settled at N35.52 trillion at the end of the trading session for the day.

As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was largely positive, as 51 tickers gained relative to 10 losers.

On the performance board, Sterling Financial Holdings and Nigerian Breweries topped the gainers’ list having appreciated by 10.0 per cent, respectively, while Eterna and John Holt recorded the highest losses of the day after their share prices dipped by 9.8 per cent, respectively.

Among the sectoral indices, the NGX Oil/Gas index was the sole loser due to sell-offs in Eterna following negative quarterly earnings.

However, the remaining sub-sector indices closed on an upward trajectory, with the NGX Banking, NGX Insurance, NGX Consumer Goods, and NGX Industrial indices climbing by 3.19 per cent, 2.48 per cent, 2.24 per cent, and 0.01 per cent, respectively.

Analysis of market activities showed trade turnover settled higher relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions up by 19.14 per cent. A total of 445.28 million shares valued at N5.09 billion were exchanged in 7,095 deals.

Sterling Financial Holdings led the volume chart with 69.45 million units traded, while Access Holdings led the value chart in deals worth N568.98 million.

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