Investors gain N542bn as stocks rally

<strong>The Nigerian equities market opened the week bullish on Monday after the Christmas holiday, as investors gained N542 billion amid sustained buying interest in major stocks.

This is the 11th consecutive bullish session which experts describe as Santa Claus rally.

Gains in Austinlaz, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, Eunisell Interlinked, Honeywell Flour, Guinness Nigeria and 36 other advancing equities boosted the market’s performance.

The market capitalisation, which opened at N97.890 trillion, added N542 billion or 0.55 per cent to close at N98.432 trillion.

Similarly, the All-Share Index rose by 0.55 per cent or 849.70 points, closing at 154,389.53 compared with 153,539.83 recorded on Wednesday.

While the year-to-date return increased by 50 per cent, the market breadth closed positive, recording 41 gainers and 37 losers.

Ecobank Transnational Incorporated and Austinlaz led the gainers’ chart by 10 per cent each, closing at N41.80 and N3.52 per share.

Eunisell Interlinked grew by 9.95 per cent, settling at N96.70, Honeywell Flour rose by 9.86 per cent, finishing at N19.50 and Guinness Nigeria soared by 9.82 per cent, ending the session at N349.90 per share.

Conversely, International Energy Insurance led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent, settling at N2.34, Meyer and Etranzact trailed by 9.92 per cent each, closing at N11.80 and N11.35 per share respectively.

Livestock Feeds dropped by 9.60 per cent, ending the session at N5.65 while Cileasing fell by 8.06 per cent, closing at N5.70 per share.

A total of 1.47 billion shares worth N35.5 billion were traded across 47,892 transactions, compared to 1.75 billion shares valued at N30.05 billion in 19,372 deals earlier recorded on Wednesday.

Analysis of the market breadth however revealed 16 per cent decline in volume, 22 per cent growth in value, and 147 per cent increase in deals.

Access Corporation recorded the highest volume and value with 594.38 million shares traded at N12.36 billion.

This translated to 40.48 per cent and 34.78 per cent of total volume and value traded for the day.