Local equities market returns to bullish run, gains N924bn

Trading activities on the floor of Nigerian Exchange on Friday returned to a bullish run, appreciating by N924 billion, despite profit taking activities in some major stocks.

The market capitalisation of listed equities increased by 0.92 per cent to N160.519 trillion from N159.048 reported on Thursday

The NGX All Share Index also grew by 2265.33 basis points to 247, 222.27 points from 244956.94 points reported the previous day.

Although the market breadth was negative with 23 gainers against 25 decliners, gains recorded in the shares of Dangote Cement, FirstHoldco, Fidelity Bank, among others wiped out the losses recorded in the shares HBMNG, Aradel, UPDC, and others bringing the year-to-date return to 58.87 per cent.

An analysis of the transaction showed that  Dangote Cement led gainers table with 10 per cent to close at N1111.00 per unit, FirstHoldco also gained 10  per cent to close at N144.10 per unit, Guinea Insurance Insurance added 9.41 per cent to close at N0.93 per unit, Fidelity Bank up by 9.09 per cent to close at N24.00 per unit while FTNCocoa gained 9.67 per cent to close at N7.92 per share.

On the contrary, Livestock Feeds topped the losers’ chart, dropping by 9.79 per cent to close at N17.05 per unit; Tripple G trailed with a loss of 8.74 per cent to close at N2.82 per unit; UPDC Reit down by 8.14 per cent to close at N17.50 per unit; HBMng fell by N350.00, while Neimeth International pharmaceutical companies went down by 6.58 per cent to close at N7.10 per share.

Further analysis indicated that the volume of trades increased by 26.76 million, representing 7.91 per cent as investors traded 364.90 million shares against 338.138 million shares reported the previous day; the value of transactions up by 19.72 per cent to settle at N22.98 billion in 335.85 deals.

Transactions in the shares of Multitrex led market’s activities with 246.786 million shares valued at N162.879 million; Livestock Feeds followed with account of 46.252 million to close at N865.590 million; Lasaco Insurance traded 23.815 million shares cost N41.252 million; Sovereign Trust Insurance exchanged 20.043 million shares cost N39.202 million, and Zenith Bank exchanged 16.504 million shares cost N1.997 billion.