Stock market closes flat, up 0.01% driven by gains in Dangote Sugar 

By Philemon Adedeji

Trading activities on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) closed flat for the fourth consecutive session as the All-Share index (ASI) gained 0.01 per cent to close at 65,492.81 basis points from 65,488.67 basis points it closed trade on previous trading day, driven by  gains in DANGOTE SUGAR (+6.95 per cent), United Capital (+0.35 per cent) and TRANSCORP (+7.14 per cent) outweighed losses in ZENITH BANK (-1.18 per cent), GTCO (-1.78 per cent) and ACCESS CORPORATION (-0.30 per cent) keeping the market in the green.

Consequently, the ASI’s year-to-date (YTD) return rose to 27.79 per cent, while the market capitalisation gained N2.27 billion to close at N35.84 trillion.

Analysis of yesterday’s market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 1.80 per cent

The trade volume increased by 18.7 per cent to 348,232,276 million shares valued at N4.05 billion were exchanged in 6,237 deals.

TRANSCORP (+7.14 per cent) led the volume and value charts with 144.71 million units traded in deals worth N682.61 million.

As measured by market breadth market sentiment closed negative, as 22 stocks dominated the gainers as against 26 stocks that dominated the losers.

On the performance board, ABCtrans led the gainers chart with 9.62 per cent to close at N0.57 per share, closely followed by 9.30 per cent to close at N1.41 per share, while Transcohot grew by  8.99 per cent to close at N40.00 per share.

Courtville Business Solution which emerged as the last fouth gainer appreciated by 8.33 per cent to close at N0.65 per share.

Transnational Corporation which came as the last fifth gainer rose by 7.14 per cent to close at N4.80 per share

On the decliners log, Conoil led the losers by 10.00 per cent to close at N99.0 per share, followed by Daar Communication which lost 9.38 per cent to close at N0.29 per share, while Redstarex dipped by 8.75 per cent to close at N2.92 per share

Tantalizer which came as the last fourth loser suffered 8.33 per cent to close at N0.33 per share.

Eterna Oil which emerged as the last fifth loser shed 8.24 per cent to close at N15.60 per share.