NGX key indices open week with 0.02% marginal growth

The domestic equities market opened trading for the week on Monday with a marginal growth of 0.02 per cent.

Speficially, the All-Share Index rose by 8.0 points or 0.02 per cent to close at 38,220.01 from 38,212.01 achieved on Friday.

Thus, the All-Share Index traded flat at 38,220.01, with month-to-date gain at 0.8 per cent, while the year-to-date loss was unchanged at 5.1 per cent.

Also, the market capitalisation garnered N4 billion to close at N19.923 trillion compared with N19.755 trillion posted on Friday.

The market upturn was driven by price appreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks amongst which are; Stanbic IBTC Holdings, UPDC Real Estate Investment Trust, Cutix, NCR Nigeria and Africa Prudential.

Analysts at Afrinvest Limited predicted that profit taking would dominate trading this week in the absence of any positive catalyst.

Investors sentiment closed positive with 27 gainers in contrast with 16 stocks losers.

Cutix dominated the gainers’ chart in percentage terms with 10 per cent to close at N3.30 per share.

NCR Nigeria followed with 9.69 per cent to close at N2.49, while Regency Alliance Insurance improved by 9.52 per cent to close at 46k per share.

UACN Property Development Company rose by 9.30 per cent to close at 94k, while Wapic Insurance gained 9.26 per cent to close at 59k per share.

On the other hand, Red Star Express led the losers’ chart in percentage terms by 9.81 per cent to close at N3.31 per share.

Associated Bus Company followed with 8.11 per cent to close at 34k, while NPF Microfinance Bank lost 6.98 per cent to close at N1.60 per share.

Presco dipped 6.04 per cent to close at N70, while Chams Plc shed 4.76 per cent to close at 20k per share.

The total volume of trades rose by 35.1 per cent as investors bought and sold 282.63 million units valued at N1.87 billion exchanged in 4,788 deals.

This was in contrast with a total of 205.45 million shares worth N2.73 billion traded in 3,563 deals on Friday.

Transactions in the shares of Fidelity Bank topped the activity chart with 28.09 million shares valued at N64.53 million.

Wema Bank followed with 19.64 million shares worth N14.42 million, while Universal Insurance traded 18.03 million shares valued at N3.61 million.

FCMB Group traded 14.82 million shares worth N45.86 million, while Sovereign Trust Insurance transacted 14.41 million shares valued at N3.89 million.