NGX gains N104bn as market breadth strengthens

The Nigerian equities market added ₦103.9 billion to investors’ wealth on Wednesday as renewed buying interest in oil and gas, banking, insurance and commodity stocks lifted the benchmark All-Share Index by 0.06 per cent.

The gain raised the market’s year-to-date return to 59.16 per cent, while market capitalisation increased to ₦160.81 trillion from the previous session’s level, reflecting improved sentiment across the trading floor.

Market breadth strengthened, with 30 stocks closing higher against 16 decliners, representing a breadth ratio of 1.9 times and indicating that advancing stocks outnumbered declining equities.

Austin Laz & Company led the gainers, alongside E-Tranzact International, Livestock Feeds, Critical Minerals Financing Corporation and FTG Insurance. Meanwhile, the biggest losses were recorded by UPDC Real Estate Investment Trust, UPDC, Regency Alliance Insurance, Veritas Kapital Assurance and R.T. Briscoe.

Sectoral performance was largely positive, with the oil and gas index advancing by 0.57 per cent, followed by the commodity sector, which gained 0.44 per cent. The insurance and banking indices rose by 0.36 per cent and 0.14 per cent, respectively.

However, the consumer goods sector declined by 0.23 per cent, while the industrial sector remained broadly unchanged, reflecting mixed performance across market segments.

Trading activity presented a mixed picture, as the total volume of shares traded fell by 20.12 per cent to 314.91 million shares from the previous session. The number of deals also declined by 20.02 per cent to 30,956.

Despite the slowdown in trading volume and transaction count, the value of shares traded increased by 33.72 per cent to ₦28.59 billion, suggesting higher turnover despite fewer shares changing hands.

The combination of positive market breadth and gains across four sectoral indices underscored the broad participation of equities in Wednesday’s advance, although the marginal rise in the All-Share Index indicated that the overall market gain remained modest.

The market closed the session with a year-to-date return of 59.16 per cent, sustaining its substantial appreciation since the beginning of the year.