By Philemon Adedeji
Nigerian Equities Market closed flat as the key market indicator grew up marginally by 2.01 absolute points amid negative market breadth.
The NGX All-Share was flat to close at 49,627.72 index points as against 0.14 per cent loss recorded previously to close at 49,625.71 index points at the end of the last trading session. In Naira terms, market capitalisation value gained N1.09 billion.
The total volume traded advanced by 85.05 per cent to close at 160.24 million share, valued at N1.49 billion and exchange in 3,847 deals.
ZENITH BANK was the most traded stock by volume with 26.74 million units traded while ZENITH BANK was also the most traded stock by value which is put at N536.65 million.
Sectoral performance was broadly negative as five (5) NGX sector index closed northward, ten (10) closed southward while three (3) closed flat.
The NGX Industrial Goods Index inched up by 0.14 per cent to top the gainers chart while the NGX Insurance Index dipped by 0.57 per cent to top the losers’ chart.
At the close of trade yesterday, market sentiments as measured by market breadth is positive as 12 stocks led the gainers as against 16 stocks that led the losers. MULTIVERSE topped the list of gainers while REDSTAREX topped the list of losers.
Thus, market breadth closed negative as the Market Breadth Index (MBI) is put at -0.06x.
Multiverse and Mining Exploration recorded as the most gainer by 9.69 per cent to close at N2.83 per share, followed by NPF Microfinance Bank which appreciated by 7.84 per cent to close at N1.63 per share while Pharmdeko which recorded as the third best gainer rose by 5.13 per cent to close at N2.03 per share.
Cutix grew by 5.12 per cent to close at N2.26 per share and Fidelity Bank went up 5.02 per cent to close at N3.41 per share.
On the other hand, Redstarex recorded as the most losers which dipped by 10 per cent to close at N2.43 per share, as Caverton which followed depreciated by 4.55 per cent to close at N1.05 per share while Livestock dropped by 4.31 per cent to close at N1.11 per share.
Sovereign Insurance dipped by 3.70 per cent to close at N0.26 per share while Lasaco Assurance down by 3.13 per cent to close at N0.93 per share.
Transaction in the share of Zenith Bank topped the activities chart with 26.736 million shares valued at N536.649 million, followed by Courtville business solution which traded 24.102 million shares worth N11.328 million while Transcorp transacted 16.249 million shares valued at N16.991 million.
Intenegins transacted 12.768 million shares worth N20.429 million and Chams plc accounted 9.314 million shares valued at N3.224 million.
ZENITHBANK led the volume’s chart with 16.68 per cent contribution and closely followed by COURTVILLE and TRANSCORP.