Local stock market halts negative trend as investors earn N43bn

The Nigerian equities market reversed previous day’s loss on Tuesday as the All-Share Index (ASI) notched a 0.2 per cent increase to close at 49,709.46 basis points.

Basically, equities trading at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) closed positively amidst low turnover, thus halting three consecutive days of negative tempo.

With this, both the month-to-date and year-to-date performances were pegged at -1.31 per cent and 16.37 per cent from their previous close of -1.47 per cent and 16.18 per cent, respectively.

Investors, therefore, earned N43 billion as the market capitalisation followed the direction of the ASI to stand at N26.812 trillion, representing a 0.16 per cent increase from the N26.769 trillion it stood at the end of the previous trading session.

Bears’ camp maintained dominance over the market breadth with 22 counters in the losers’ chart pitted against 10 counters in the gainers’ chart.

Cutix gained 7.50 per cent to become the best performing stock in the session, flanked by Lasaco Insurance, Union Bank of Nigeria, Academy Press and BUA Cement, while from the rear of the chart, UPDCREIT, PZ, Courtville, Japaul Gold and Wapic Insurance populated the top five losers’ chart.

Key sectoral indices closed in mixed direction with the ASI, with the NGX Industry sector gaining the most weight, as NGX Insurance sector lost the most weight, while NGX Growth and NGX ASEM sectors closed flat.

Market activity as measured by volume of trades shed weight in the session with daily traded volume standing at 204.163 million units, representing 3.17 per cent downtick from a volume of 210.836 million units traded in the previous session.

Value of those traded stocks dipped by 25.02 per cent in the session to stand at N1.640 billion as against a value of N2.188 billion recorded in the previous trading session.

FBN Holdings dominated the volume charts as the top traded stock by volume for the trading session, followed by ETransazact, United Bank for Africa, Access Holdings Corporation and Eternal Oil to complete the list of the five most traded stocks by volume, while with regards to the value of traded stocks, FBN Holdings took the lead of the top five performers, flanked by Guaranty Trust Holding Company, Access Holdings Corporation, United Bank for Africa and Zenith Bank.

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