By Dipo Olowookere
The market capitalisation of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited increased by 2.04 per cent or N1.006 trillion on Thursday to settle at N50.290 trillion compared with Wednesday’s closing value of N49.284 trillion.
This new milestone was achieved after Customs Street maintained its upswing during the trading session as investors continue to mop up equities across the key sectors of the market, though the financial services counter experienced profit-taking.
Analysis showed that the insurance counter fell by 2.11 per cent and the banking industry depreciated 1.89 per cent, while the industrial goods space grew by 7.83 per cent, the energy index appreciated by 2.69 per cent, and the consumer goods sector improved by 0.87 per cent.
Consequently, the All-Share Index (ASI) went up by 1,833.72 points to close the day at 91,896.97 points compared with the preceding day’s 90,063.25 points.
Business Post reports that investor sentiment, unlike the previous session, was weak, as a result of a negative market breadth index after there were 33 price gainers and 42 price losers.
Conoil, John Holt, Unity Bank, NEM Insurance, and Eterna gained 10.00 per cent each to sell at N112.20, N2.53, N3.30, N8.25, and N20.90.
Conversely, Ikeja Hotel shed 9.79 per cent to trade at N8.11, Royal Exchange lost 9.78 per cent to quote at 83 Kobo, Mutual Benefits depreciated by 9.57 per cent to 85 Kobo, Linkage Assurance fell by 9.40 per cent to N1.35, and Japaul dropped 9.33 per cent to N2.43.
A total of 1.1 billion stocks valued at N19.3 billion were transacted in 17,804 deals yesterday compared with the 1.3 billion stocks worth N16.4 billion traded in 17,471 deals, indicating a decline in the trading volume by 15.39 per cent, and a rise in the trading value and the number of deals by 17.68 per cent, and 1.91 per cent, respectively.
Transcorp kept the top spot on the activity chart on Thursday after it sold 156.6 million equities for N3.0 billion, followed by Universal Insurance with 114.6 million shares valued at N55.6 million. Veritas Kapital traded 69.4 million stocks worth N47.3 million, Jaiz Bank exchanged 65.9 million shares worth N243.9 million, and GTCO transacted 63.4 million equities valued at N2.9 billion.
