Equities market sustains gains, up by 0.18%
In the last trading session of the week, the equities market of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) ended the week on a positive note as the All-Share Index closed 0.18 per cent stronger to settle at 65,325.37 basis points.
About 1.05 per cent gain in MTN Nigeria Communication Plc alongside, 1.85 per cent gain in Dangote Cement Plc and 1.94 per cent appreciation in ETI pushed the broader index into positive terrain offsetting losses in GTCO dropped by 0.26 per cent, Stanbic IBTC down by 0.16 per cent and Access Corporation depreciated by 0.86 per cent.
Having gained in three of five trading sessions this week, the ASI closed 0.20 per cent higher week-on-week (w/w).
Over the course of the week, positive performances across MTN Nigeria (+1.05% w/w), BUA Foods (+0.75 per cent w/w) and Zenith Bank (+2.64 per cent w/w) were sufficient to offset the selloff in Dangote Cement (-0.60 per cent w/w), Geregu (-1.59 per cent w/w) and Stanbic IBTC (-1.69 per cent w/w).
Consequently, the year-to-date (YTD) return rose to 27.46per cent, while the market capitalization gained N92.68billion w/w to close at N35.57trilliion.
Analysis of today’s market activities showed trade turnover settled higher relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions up by 45.60 per cent. A total of 489.69million shares valued at N8.36billion were exchanged in 5,804 deals. Sterling Bank (+3.20 per cent) led the volume chart with 86.11 million units traded while Seplat (+0.00 per cent) led the value chart in deals worth N3.54billion.
Market breadth closed positive at 1.11-to-1 ratio with advancing issues outnumbering declining ones. Glaxosmith (+9.78 per cent) topped 19 others on the leader’s table while MBENEFIT (-7.84 per cent) led 17 others on the laggard’s log.
