At the end of Wednesday’s Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) trading activities, the local bourse traded marginally higher following investor’s renewed interest in some banking stocks.
Accordingly, the NGX All Share Index (ASI) notched a four basis points gain to close at 67,353.23 basis points.
Basically, the overall positive sentiments followed investors’ interest in Zenith Bank, United Bank for Africa and Guaranty Trust Holding Company, which led to 1.2 per cent, 1.6 per cent and 0.7 per cent appreciation in their respective share prices.
Thus, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns increased to +1.5.per cent and +31.4 per cent, respectively.
After the positive trading sessions on Wednesday, equities investors gained N15.29 billion cumulatively as the market capitalisation, having gained 0.04 per cent, closed at N37.00 trillion.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive as 19 tickers gained while 18 tickers lost. On the performance board, Guinea Insurance and Eterna Oil recorded the highest gains of the day, having appreciated in share value by 9.1 per cent and 6.9 per cent, respectively, while CWG and RTBriscoe topped the losers’ list after their respective share value dipped by 10.0 per cent and 8.8 per cent.
Furthermore, sectoral performance was largely bullish as three out of five sectors gained. The Banking, Insurance and Oil/Gas indexes led the gainers, advancing by 0.74 per cent, 0.27 per cent, and 0.22 per cent. While the Industrial goods sector declined by 0.06 per cent, the Consumer Goods sector remained flat.
Market activity mellowed, with total deals and value plunging by 8.38 per cent and 9.10 per cent to 6,165 trades, valued at N4.69 billion.
Meanwhile, the traded volume for the day surged by 5.18 per cent to 397.56 million units. In terms of volume, Weman Bank emerged as the most actively traded stock, with 88.99 million shares worth N418.15 billion changing hands in 65 deals, while Guaranty Trust Holding Company was the most traded stock by value at NGN828.48 million.
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