On Wednesday, equities trading at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) remained bullish as the benchmark index gained 0.31 per cent to settle at 52,580.86 basis points.
Sustained interests in Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Holding Company and First Bank of Nigeria Holdings kept the market in the positive territory as these banking stocks appreciated in value by 2.65 per cent, 4.18 per cent and 0.83 per cent, respectively.
Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns settled at +0.3 per cent and +2.6 per cent, respectively.
Equities investors, therefore, earned N87.95 billion as the market capitalization closed higher at N28.63 trillion at the end of trading activities on Wednesday.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive, as 29 tickers gained relative to 18 losers. On the performance boards, MRS and Nigerian Breweries topped the gainers’ list having appreciated in share value by 9.9 per cent and 9.6 per cent, respectively, while CHI Plc and Sovereign Insurance recorded the highest losses of the day after their respective share prices dipped by 7.7 per cent and 6.5 per cent.
On Wednesday at the local bourse, strong interest across the consumer goods, insurance and banking stocks with strong fundamentals appeared top to the toast of investors as their prices appreciated.
Across the sectoral gauges, performance was largely bullish as the NGX Consumer Goods, NGX Insurance, Banking and the NGX Oil & Gas indexes advanced by 1.09 per cent, 0.48 per cent, 0.96 per cent and 0.49 per cent, respectively, while the Industrial goods index closed as the only laggards.
Analysis of market activities showed trade turnover settled higher relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions up by 16.24 per cent. A total of 680.80 million shares valued at N7.89 billion were exchanged in 6,666 deals.
Fidelity Bank led the volume chart with 254.05 million units traded, while Guaranty Trust Holding Company led the value chart in deals worth N1.57 billion.
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