Investors gain N792bn as NGX maintains upward trend

The stock market, on Thursday, maintained an upward trend as the market capitalisation added N792 billion or 0.125 per cent to an opening of N63.559 billion, to close at N64.351 trillion.

The All-Share Index also gained 0.125 per cent or 1300 points, to close at 105,530.74, in contrast to 104,230.73 recorded on Wednesday.

The positive performance was primarily driven by price appreciations in MTN Nigeria, Zenith Bank, United Bank For Africa(UBA), Oando Plc, among other advanced equities.

Consequently, the Year-To-Date (YTD) return advanced to 2.53 per cent.

However, the market breadth closed positive with 34 gainers and 25 losers.

On the gainers’ chart, MTN Nigeria led by N22 to close at N242, Honeywell Flour followed by 82k to close at N9.11 and Universal Insurance added 7k to close at 78k per share.

Transcorp Hotel gained N11.35 to close at N127.35 and Ikeja Hotel increased by N1.15 to close at N13.50 per share.

On the other hand, RT Briscoe led the losers chart by 26k to close at N2.34, Sunu Assurances trailed by 90k to close at N8.11 per share.

The Initiate Plc lost 27k to close at N2.52, UPDC Real Estate Investment Trust shed 19k to close at N1.81 and Guinea Insurance dropped 8k to close at 91k per share.

Analysis of the market activities showed trade turnover also settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 48.09 per cent.

A total of 481.69 million shares valued at N12.82 billion were exchanged in 12,824 deals, compared with 756.42 million shares valued at N24.69 billion traded in 13,551 deals, posted in the previous session.

Universal Insurance led the activity chart in volume with 97.24 million shares, while Seplat led in value of deals worth N4.56 billion.