Local stock market opens February bullish as investors earn N143.2bn

The local bourse extended the bullish run for the fourth consecutive session as the All-Share index gained 0.49 per cent to open the month of February with 53,499.68 points.

Hence, the year-to-date gain of the local bourse rose to 4.39 per cent despite the market breadth closing flat with 20 gainers and losers a piece.

At the Nigerian Exchange Limited, on Wednesday, Investors interest in Nestle Nigeria, Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Holding Company kept the market in the positive terrain as the share prices appreciated by 1.84 per cent, 2.00 per cent and 0.40 per cent, respectively.

Investors therefore earned N143.17 billion as the market capitalization settled at N29.14 trillion at the end of the day’s trading sessions.

As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was mixed, as an equal number of tickers gained and lost. On the performance board, IMG and Seplat topped the gainers’ list having appreciated in respective share vale by 10.0 per cent, while Guinness and Ardova recorded the highest losses of the day after their respective share prices dipped by 10.0 percent.

Reflective of a flat positive sentiment towards banking and Oil/Gas stocks, only two of the five sub-sector gauges tracked closed in green, The NGX Banking and NGX Oil/Gas indices rose by 1.22 per cent and 3.61 per cent, respectively. On the flip side, the NGX Insurance, NGX Consumer Goods, and NGX Industrial indices moderated by 1.34 per cent, 0.11 per cent and 0.02 per cent, respectively.

In the broader market, the NGX Premium index and the NGX-30 index both increased by 66 basis points and 38 basis points, respectively.

Analysis of market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 6.13 per cent.

A total of 200.37 million shares valued at N5.52 billion were exchanged in 3,716 deals. Guaranty Trust Holding Company led the volume chart with 16.61 million units traded, while Geregu led the value chart in deals worth N1.64 billion.