Equities market opens week bullish as ASI hits 80,000bps

The benchmark index of the equities market at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) hit 80,000 points on Monday.

Opening the week, Nigerian equities extended gains from last week as the All Share Index closed 0.83 per cent stronger to settle at 80,324.53 basis points.

Investor’s interest in Tier-1 banks namely, Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Holding Company and United Bank for Africa kept the market in the green having appreciated in share value by 2.50 per cent, 3.53 per cent and 3.28 per cent, respectively.

As a result, the year-to-date (YTD) return rose to 7.42 per cent.

At the end of the first trading activities in the week, equities investors earned NN368.31 billion as the market capitalisation settled at N43.96 trillion.

As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive, as 53 tickers gained relative to 17 losers.

On the performance board, Cornerstone Insurance and Cutix topped the gainers’ list having appreciated in share value by 10.0 per cent, respectively; while Daar Communication and Eternal Oil recorded the most significant losses of the day after their share prices dipped by 9.3 per cent and 8.8 per cent, respectively.

From a sectoral perspective, gains in the Insurance, Banking, Industrial Goods, Oil & Gas, and Consumer Goods indices reflected the overall market performance after appreciating in value by 6.3 per cent, 2.2 per cent, 0.7 per cent, 0.6 per cent and 0.1 per cent, respectively.

Activities at the local bourse on Monday was impressive as analysis of market activities showed trade turnover settled higher relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions up by 6.48 per cent. A total of 1.19 billion shares valued at N15.26 billion were exchanged in 16,081 deals.

Transnational Corporation led both the volume and value chart with 298.30 million units traded in deals worth N4.08 billion.

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