Equity market recovers, investors gain N390bn

The Nigerian equity market on Thursday recovered from its three sessions losses, making investors gain N390 billion.

Improved buy interest in the shares of Guaranty Trust Holding Company(GTCO), Zenith Bank, FBN Holdings, NEM Insurance, Juli Plc,among others top traders, pushed the market performance up.

Specifically, the market capitalisation, which opened at N54.317 trillion, gained N390 billion or 0.72 per cent, closed at N54.707 trllion.

The All-Share index also rose by 0.72 per cent or 714 points to close at 99,980.3 points, compared to 99,266.02 recorded on Wednesday.

Consequently, the Year-To-Date return rose to 33.71 per cent.

Analysis of the market activities indicated that trade turnover settled higher relative to the Wednesday 5session, with the value of transactions which increased by 49.27 per cent.

The market breadth closed positive with 35 gainers and 19 laggards on the trading floor.

On the gainers table, GTCO, NEM Insurance, Juli and United Bank of Africa (UBA) led in percentage terms of 10 each to close at N36.60, N6.60, N3.41 and N22.55 per share, respectively.

Champion Breweries also gained 9.97 per cent to close at N3.42 per share.

On the other hand, Sunu Assurances led the losers’ table by 10 per cent to close at N1.17, followed by Eterna Plc by 9.81 per cent to close at N14.25 per share.

CWG Plc trailed by 9.76 per cent to close at N9.55, Morison Industries Plc shed 9.58 per cent to close at N1.51 and Cadbury Nigeria lost 9.52 per cent to close at N19 per share.

A total of 542.95 million shares valued at N8.70 billion were exchanged in 9,650 deals, compared to 396.23 million shares valued at N5.83 billion exchanged in 10,549 deals posted on Wednesday.

On the activity table, UBA led in volume and value with 93.71 million shares traded in deals worth N2.07 billion, Transcorp followed with 54.08 million shares traded in value of N692.19 million.

Japaul Gold Group sold 34.33 million shares worth N65.77 million, Sterling Nigeria transacted 28.49 million shares valued at N129.15 million and Fidelity Bank sold 27.09 million shares worth N270.74.

Meanwhile, market breadth closed positive with 35 gainers and 19 laggards on the trading floor.