Local stock market opens week bullish as investors earn N72bn

Equities trading at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) rebounded by 0.22 per cent on Monday as the All Share Index (ASI) settled at 59,338.76 basis points.

Accordingly, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns increased to +6.4 per cent and +15.8 per cent, respectively.

Notably, interest in Tier-1 banking shares picked up as Guaranty Trust Holding Company, United Bank for Africa and Zenith Bank were among the gainers having appreciated in value by 3.97 per cent, 2.18 per cent and 1.56 per cent, respectively. Cement majors, BUA Cement and Lafarge Africa also experienced share price appreciation by 2.50 per cent and 0.69 per cent.

Equities investors, therefore, earned N71.95 billion cumulatively as the market capitalisation settled at N32.31 trillion by the end of the day’s trading sessions.

As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive as 46 tickers gained relative to 23 losers. On the performance board, Academy Press and ABC Transport recorded the highest gains of the day having increased in share value by 10.0 per cent, respectively, while Unity Bank and Japaul Gold topped the losers’ list as their respective share prices dipped by 10.0 per cent and 9.2 per cent, respectively.

The positive sentiment extended to the sectorial gauges, as all of the five indices closed on an upward trajectory: the NGX Banking, NGX Insurance, NGX Consumer Goods, NGX Oil/Gas, and NGX Industrial indexes rose by 2.40 per cent, 1.68 per cent, 0.14 per cent, 0.52 per cent, and 1.00 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 42.69 per cent.
A total of 552.69 million shares valued at N13.06 billion were exchanged in 8,052 deals.

Access Holdings led the volume chart with 74.60 million units traded while BUA Cement led the value chart in deals worth N3.86 billion.