Stock market opens positive, investors gain N331bn

Opening the week, the Nigerian stock market extended gains from its previous session, leading to N331 billion profit for investors.

Buy interest in Zenith Bank, FBN Holdings, Oando Plc, Aradel, Transnational Corporation, among other advanced equities drove the market’s performance up.

The market capitalisation, which opened at N60.241 billion, gained N332 billion or 0.55 per cent to close at N60.572 trillion.

The All-Share Index also added 0.55 per cent or 545 points to settle at 99,922.63, against 99,378.06 posted on Friday.

As a result, the Year-To-Date (YTD) return rose to 33.63 per cent.

Market breadth closed positive with 35 gainers and 25 losers on the floor of the Exchange.

On the gainers’ log, Royal Exchange led by 6k to close at 66k, Living Trust followed by 30k to close at N3.30 per share.

International Breweries advanced by 41k to close at N4.55, Guinea Insurance gained 6k to close at 67k, while Caverton rose by 19k to close at N2.17 per share.

Conversely, UPL led the losers’ log by 41k to close at N3.77,Haldane McCall trailed by 50k to close at N4.70 per share.

International Energy shed 14k to close at N1.33, ABC Transport lost 10k to close at N1.05, while Sovereign Trust Insurance dropped 7k to close at 78k per share.

Analysis of the market activities showed trade turnover settled higher relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions up by 58.75 per cent.

A total of 740.89 billion shares valued at N16.88 billion was exchanged across 10,430 deals, compared with 544.24 million shares valued at N10.63 billion traded in 8,464 deals.

Meanwhile, Sterling Nigeria led the activity chart in volume with 196.97 million shares, while Wema Bank led in value of deals worth N1.33 billion.