Equities Investors Gain N279bn as Oando, GTCO Rally
The stock market reversed losses by 0.31 per cent on Thursday, recording N279 billion gain for investors. This is coming after four consecutive sessions of losses.
The uptrend was driven by improved bargain hunting and renewed investors interest in stocks like: Mecure Industries, Oando, Mc Nicholas, CHAMS, Legend Internet and 29 other stocks.
Specifically, the market capitalisation, which opened at N89.063 trillion, added N279 billion to close at N89.342 trillion.
Similarly, the All-Share Index soared by 0.31 per cent or 432.94 points, settling at 141,149.04 compared with 140,716.10 recorded on Wednesday.
Also, the market breadth closed positive with 34 gainers against 22 lossers. Mecure Industries led the advancers’ table by 9.89 per cent, closing at N26.10.
Oando trailed by 9.50 per cent, ending the session at N49 while Mc Nicholas climbed by 9.31 per cent, settling at N3.64 per share. CHAMS rose by 9.24 per cent, finishing at N3.43 and Legend Internet gained by 9.18 per cent, closing at N5.35 per share.
On the flip side, Eterna led the decliners’ table by 10 per cent, settling at N27.90.
Sovereign Trust Insurance followed, shedding by 4.84 per cent, closing at N2.95 and The Initiates fell by 3.84 per cent, ending the session at N12.02 per share.
Caverton Offshore Support Group dipped by 3.76 per cent, finishing at N6.40 while Fidson lost by 3.72 per cent, closing at N41.40 per share.
An evaluation of the market activity revealed increase in the market volume and value and a decline in transactions.
A total of 5.5 billion shares valued at N419.7 billion were traded across 20,399 transactions, compared to 442.6 million shares worth N16.9 billion that exchanged hands in 21,684 transactions earlier on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Aradel Holdings led the market chart in volume and value with 693.3 million shares valued at N388.2 billion.
Consolidated Hallmark Holdings followed with 333.3 million shares worth N1.3 billion while Sterling Nigeria traded 104.9 million shares valued at N771.8 million.
Zenith Bank transacted 45.5 million shares worth N3.14 billion, and Unity Bank sold 4 million shares valued at N12.7 billion.
Sectoral performance was broadly bullish as three indices advanced while one declined. The Banking index (+1.02%) led the bulls, driven by price upticks in GTCO (+1.98%) and STANBIC (+3.09%).
The Oil & Gas (+0.74%) and Consumer Goods (+0.31%) indices followed suit, supported by gains in OANDO (+9.50%) and DANGSUGAR (+4.38%), respectively.
On the flip side, the Insurance (-0.41%) closed lower from sell-offs in AIICO (-2.55%). Meanwhile, the industrial and commodity indices remained flat. NUPRC Approves TotalEnergies’ $510m Deal with Shell, Agip
