Nigerian equities on Monday delivered a positive performance, extending gains from the previous session as the All-Share Index (ASI) of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) rose 0.71 per cent to close at 67,877.17 basis points.
The market’s performance was primarily driven by a rally in telco heavyweight, Airtel Africa, alongside Guaranty Trust Holding Company, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, leading to 1.60 per cent, 0.14 per cent and 9.58 per cent respective increases in their share prices.
Thus, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns advanced to +2.0 per cent and +32.4 per cent, respectively.
Equities investors therefore earned N263.49 billion as the market capitalization settled at N37.15 trillion at the end of trading activities.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive as 29 tickers gained relative to 26 losses. On the performance board, Northern Nigeria Flour Mills and Oando topped the gainers’ list having appreciated in share prices by 10.0 per cent, while Omatek and Sky Aviation recorded the highest losses of the day after their share prices dipped by 10.0 per cent, respectively.
Breakdown across the sectoral gauges showed a bullish outing as three of the five indices tracked closed in the green zone: the NGX Banking, NGX Insurance, and NGX Consumer Goods indices rose by 1.43 per cent, 0.14 per cent, and 0.16 per cent, respectively. On the flip side, the NGX Oil/Gas and the NGX Industrial indices dwindled by 0.38 per cent and 0.06 per cent, respectively.
Analysis of market activities for the day showed trade turnover settled higher relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions up by 70.55 per cent. A total of 515.28 million shares valued at N8.93 billion were exchanged in 8,357 deals.
United Bank for Africa led the volume chart with 109.47 million units traded while Airtel Africa led the value charts in deals worth N2.72 billion.
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