Dangote Cement lifts equities market by N842bn
The equities market on Thursday sustained its three-day bullish run as gains in Dangote Cement Plc and 34 others pushed the overall capitalization up by N842 billion.
The Nigerian Exchange Limited All-Share Index (NGX ASI) gained 1,350.00 points or 1.25 per cent to close at 109,172.04 basis points. Also, market capitalisation rose by N842 billion to close at N68.116 trillion.
Investor sentiment, as measured by market breadth closed positive, as 35 stocks advanced, while 25declined. Dangote Cement, SUNU Assurance and Regency Alliance Insurance emerged the highest price gainer of 10 per cent each to close at N474.10, N6.27 and 77 kobo respectively, per share.
Haldane McCall followed with a gain of 9.98 per cent to close at N5.51, while PZ Cussons Nigeria advanced by 9.96 per cent to close at N25.95, per share.
On the other side, Golden Guinea Breweries led others on the losers’ chart with 9.91 per cent to close at N7.09, per share. Linkage Assurance followed with a decline of 6.76 per cent to close at N1.38, while Eterna shed 6.57 per cent to close at N45.50, per share.
CWG lost 6.36 per cent to close at N8.10, while Chams Holding Company depreciated by 3.75 per cent to close at N2.31, per share.
The total volume of trades declined by 7.6 per cent to 427.083 million units, valued at N9.196 billion, and exchanged in 16,342 deals. Transactions in the shares of Universal Insurance led the activity with 23.230 million shares worth N16.007 million. Wema Bank followed with account of 22.712 million shares valued at N260.552 million, while Sterling Financial Holdings Company traded 21.944 million shares valued at N131.812 million.
AIICO Insurance traded 19.855 million shares worth N34.791 million, while Fidelity Bank traded 18.264 million shares worth N359.582 million.
On market performance, Afrinvest Limited said “we anticipate the positive momentum to be sustained in the final trading session of the week, underpinned by strategic positions ahead of full year 2024 dividend declarations.”
