AIICO, Sunu Assurance, others lift equities market by N80bn

The equities market opened the week slightly bullish as performance indices grew by 0.09 per cent, reversing Friday’s losses.

Investors’ interest in stocks like AIICO Insurance, Sunu Assurances, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, UPDC Real Estate Investment Trust and 37 other advancing stocks contributed to the market’s positive performance.

The market capitalisation increased by N80 billion, or 0.09 per cent, rising from N92.214 trillion at the opening to N92.294 trillion at the close.

Similarly, the All-Share Index (ASI) advanced by 0.09 per cent, gaining 125.86 points to close at 145,880.77, compared to 145,754.91 reported on Friday.
Also, the market breadth closed positive with 41 gainers and 36 losers.

AIICO Insurance led the gainers’ table, rising by 10 per cent, closing at N3.85 while Sunu Assurances also gained by 10 per cent, finishing at N5.50 per share.

Stanbic IBTC Holdings rose by 10 per cent, settling at N110.10 and UPDC Real Estate Investment Trust also climbed by 10 per cent, ending the session at N8.69 per share.

Also, Veritas Kapital Assurance increased by 10 per cent, closing at N2.31 per share.

Conversely, Abbey Mortgage Bank led the decliners’ chart by 10 per cent, settling at N5.67 while ABC Transport also fell by 10 per cent, closing at N4.50 per share.

UAC of Nigeria dropped by 9.99 per cent, ending the session at N75.25 and Halldane McCall shed by 9.92 per cent, finishing at N4.36 per share.

Similarly, VFD Group lost by 9.70 per cent, closing at N12.10 per share.

A total of 2.12 billion shares worth N19.39 billion were traded across 40,435 transactions, compared to 2.21 billion shares worth N32.4 billion that was exchanged across 35,036 transactions earlier on Friday.

Meanwhile, Linkage Assurance led the activity chart in volume and value with 703.6 million shares valued at worth N1.59 billion.

Universal Insurance sold 230.54 million shares valued at N278.90 million while AIICO Insurance traded 154.73 million shares worth N595.34 million.

While Sterling Nigeria transacted 120.19 million shares valued at N987.86 million, Veritas Kapital Assurance sold 74.56 million shares worth N164.6 million.