Equities market opens week with 0.08% gain
By Kayode Tokede
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday sustained positive posture, appreciating by N75.91 billion due to buying interest on Dangote Cement and 26 stocks.
Specifically, the market capitalisation inched higher by N75 billion to close at N21.069 trillion from N20.994 trillion posted on Monday.
Also, the All-Share Index increased by 145.17 basis points or 0.36 per cent to close at 40,295.95 basis points against 40,150.78 basis points on Monday.
Sectoral performance was mixed, as the Insurance (+3.6 per cent), Industrial Goods (+1.0 per cent), and Consumer Goods (+0.4per cent) indices recorded gains, while the Banking (-0.6 per cent) and Oil & Gas (-0.1 per cent) indices declined.
The market gain was driven by price appreciation in medium and large capitalised stocks amongst which are; Dangote Cement, Ardova, NASCON Allied Industries, Dangote Sugar Refinery and May & Baker.
Market closed breadth positive with 27 gainers as against 20 laggards.
Niger Insurance, Omatek Ventures, Mutual Benefits Assurance and NASCON led the gainers’ chart in percentage terms, gaining 10 per cent each to close at 22k, 22k, 33k and N15.95 per share, respectively.
Ardova followed with 9.75 per cent to close at N19.70, while NCR rose by 9.69 per cent to close at N2.15 per share.
Conversely, Oando drove the losers’ chart in percentage terms, declining by 5.41 per cent to close at N3.50 per share.
UACN Property Development Company and Deap Capital Management and Trust trailed with a loss of 4.76 per cent each to close at 80k and 20k per share, respectively.
Courteville Business Solutions shed 4.35 per cent to close at 22k, while Wema Bank dipped 4.11 per cent to close at 70k per share.
Transactions in the shares of UPDC Real Estate Investment Trust topped the activity chart with 755.01 million shares valued at N4.15 billion.
AXA Mansard Insurance followed with 49.51 million shares worth N59.13 million, while Transcorp traded 44.27 million shares valued at N41.76 million.
Japaul Gold and Ventures sold 29.35 million shares worth N34.04 million, while Sterling Bank transacted 26.21 million shares valued at N51.85 million.
In all, the total volume of shares traded increased by 247.5 per cent with an exchange of 1.17 billion shares worth N7.97 billion in 5,591 deals.
This was in contrast with a turnover of 335.69 million shares valued at N2.49 billion transacted in 5,338 deals on Monday.
Analysts at Investment One research stated that, “The equities market closed up today due to the gains recorded in the Industrial and Consumer Goods sectors.
“Going forward, we expect investor’s sentiments to be swayed by the search for real positive returns amidst a low interest-rate environment. Nonetheless, we reiterate that this may be a great period to pick up some quality names with a medium to long-term investment horizon.”
