Equities market maintains bullish walk as investors gain N173.7bn

Bullish sentiments persists at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) on Thursday, as the benchmark index advanced by 0.62 per cent to close at 52,048.85 basis points, the highest point since 21 July 2022.

Specifically, gains in telco heavyweight, MTN Nigeria, as well as Tier-1 banking names, Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Holding Company and FBN Holdings kept the market in the green as the share prices of these companies appreciated by 2.33 per cent, 2.87 per cent, 2.08 per cent2.22 per cent.

As a result, the NGX ASI’s year-to-date gain increased to 1.56 per cent.

Equities investors, therefore, earned N173.74 billion as the market capitalization settled higher at N28.35 trillion by the end of trading activities on Thursday.

As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive as 35 tickers gained relative to 9 losers. On the performance board, LASACO Insurance and Ellah Lakes topped the gainers’ list as their respective share prices appreciated by 10.0 per cent, while Abbey and Challaram recorded the highest losses of the day after the share value dipped by 10.0 per cent and 9.8 per cent, respectively.

Four of the five indices tracked finished higher, with the NGX Banking index leading the gainers by 2.15 per cent, followed by the NGX Consumer Goods, NGX Oil/Gas, and NGX Industrial indexes by 0.74 per cent, 0.54 per cent, and 0.19 per cent, respectively.

On the flip side, the NGX Insurance Index (-0.02%) slipped for the fourth consecutive day on Thursday due to continued sell pressure on Royal Exchange shares, having dipped by 2.0 per cent.

Analysis of market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session with the value of transactions down by 5.32 per cent.

A total of 211.74 m shares valued at N7.73 billion were exchanged in 3,462 deals.
Mansard Insurance led the volume chart with 26.25m units traded while Airtel Africa led the value chart in deals worth N4.14 billion.

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Equities market maintains bullish walk as investors gain N173.7bn