By Kayode Tokede
Equities market transactions on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) on Tuesday closed on a positive trajectory as market recovers by N28.94billion.
In summary, the NGX All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 55.50 basis points, representing a growth of 0.15 percent to close at 37,640.75 basis points, while the overall market capitalisation value gained N28.94 billion to close at N19.621 trillion.
Accordingly, Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date losses moderated to -2.1percent and -6.5per cent respectively.
Analysing by sectors, the Insurance (+2.2per cent), Consumer Goods (+0.3 per cent) and Banking (+0.3 percent) indices posted gains.
On the other hand, the Oil & Gas (-0.9 percent) index declined, while the Industrial Goods index was flat.
The market gain was driven by price appreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks amongst which are; Okomu Oil Palm, Cadbury Nigeria, Dangote Sugar Refinery, Vitafoam Nigeria and FCMB Group.
Analysts at Afrinvest Limited said that “In the coming trading session, we expect bargain hunting activities to sustain the positive performance.”
The market breadth closed positive as 28 stocks gained, relative to 13 losers. Ikeja Hotel and Linkage Assurance recorded the highest price gain of 10 percent each to close at N1.21 and 77 kobo respectively, while Cadbury Nigeria followed with a gain 9.62 percent to close at N8.55, per share.
Honeywell Flour Mill rose by 9.46 percent to close at N1.62, while Consolidated Hallmark Insurance gained 8.62 percent to close at 63 kobo, per share. On the other hand, Jaiz Bank led the losers’ chart by 5.17 percent to close at 55 kobo, per share.
Veritas Kapital Assurance followed with a decline of 4 per cent to close at 24 kobo, while Unity Bank lost 3.64 percent to close at 53 kobo, per share.
PZ Cussons Nigeria lost 3.42 percent to close at N5.65, while Flour Mills of Nigeria shed 2.52 per cent to close at N29.05, per share.
The total volume of trades increased by 40.06 percent to 229.010 million units, valued at N2.730 billion, and exchanged in 3,678 deals.
Transactions in the shares of FCMB Group topped the activity chart with 40.704 million shares valued at N133.657 million.
Custodian Investment followed with 15.814 million shares worth N95.690 million, while Guaranty Trust Holding Company traded 13.428 million shares valued at N401.146 million.
Zenith Bank traded 11.149 million shares valued at N265.320 million, while Jaiz Bank transacted 10.688 million shares worth N5.927 million.
Capital market analysts said that “The positive performance was buoyed by investors’ buying interest on recently depreciated medium and large-scale stocks.”