Equities market opens week with N1.4trn gain

This was driven by strong buying interest in large- and mid-cap stocks like: CAP, Daar Communications, May and Baker, RT Briscoe, Zichis Agro Allied Industries and 54 other advancing stocks.

The market capitalisation, which opened at N110.234 trillion, closed at N111.658 trillion, increasing by 1.29 per cent or N1.424 trillion.

Also, the All-Share Index grew by 1.29 per cent or 2,218.73 points, from 171,727.49 to 173,946.22.

This pushed the Year-To-Date return to 11.78 per cent while the market breadth closed positive with 59 gainers and 26 losers.

CAP, May and Baker as well as Daar Communications led the gainers’ chart by 10 per cent each, closing at N90.20, N43.45 and N2.09 per share respectively.

RT Briscoe rose by 9.98 per cent, settling at N13.89 while Zichis Agro Allied Industries soared by 9.97 per cent, finishing at N7.39 per share.

On the flip side, Eunisell Interlinked led the losers’ chart by 9.98 per cent, ending the session at N134.85 , Tripple Gee shed by 8.90 per cent, finishing at N6.65 while Abbey Mortgage Bank dipped by 8.03 per cent, settling at N13.75 per share.

Similarly, Austinlaz dropped by 7.41 per cent, closing at N5 and Haldane McCall fell by 6.56 per cent, finishing at N3.99 per share.

Analysis of the market activity revealed a 18.72 per cent decline in volume, 35 per cent drop in value but 29 per cent growth in deals.

A total of 775.18 million shares worth N27.9 billion were traded across 65,960 transactions, compared to 953.8 million shares valued at N43.1 billion that was exchanged across 51,005 deals earlier recorded.

Access Corporation recorded the highest volume with 67.14 million shares traded, accounting for 8.66 per cent of the day’s total volume.

Zenith Bank recorded the highest value traded at N3.43 billion, accounting for 12.29 per cent of the total value traded for the day.

Reacting to the market uptick, Mr Tajudeen Olayinka, Chief Executive Officer of Wyoming Capital & Partners, attributed the increase to price appreciation in some highly capitalised stocks.

According to him, these include Dangote and others, which significantly lifted the overall market performance.

Olayinka noted that most of the gains were recorded across low- and mid-cap stocks, with contributions also coming from a few large-cap equities across various sectors.

However, he said banking stocks did not show any significant movement and continued to lag, due to uncertainties surrounding the Central Bank of Nigeria’s recapitalisation deadline.

He explained that banking stocks, particularly the mid- and large-cap players, were currently undervalued and would ordinarily be expected to attract investor interest.

He, however, said that investors appear to be focusing more on opportunities in other sectors for now, leaving banking equities relatively subdued.