SEPLAT, UPDCREIT Boost NGX Index, Investors Gain N238bn
With a 10% gain, Seplat and UPDC Real Estate Investment Trust (UPDCREIT) drove the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) All-Share Index (ASI) higher by 15 basis points on Thursday.
Nigerian equities returned to positive territory, as renewed buying interest lifted the All-Share Index by 0.15% to settle at 246,388.22 points.
The gain added approximately ₦238.37 billion to investors’ wealth, pushing market capitalisation higher to ₦159.15 trillion, while the market’s year-to-date return stood at 58.33%.
Trading activity improved modestly across key indicators, as the volume of shares traded increased by 1.71% to 433.97 million units, while transaction value rose by 3.48% to ₦29.26 billion.
The number of deals also increased by 2.00% to 42,217, reflecting a slight improvement in trading activity during the session. Market breadth, however, weakened to 0.67x, as 22 gainers were outpaced by 33 losers, indicating that the positive index performance was not broad-based.
Market activity levels increased — total volume rose to 433.97 million, trade value to N29.26 billion, and the number of deals to 42,217, compared with the last trading session, when 426.66 million units of shares valued at N28.27 billion were executed in 41,391 deals.
UBA led both the volume and value charts, with 113.26 million shares worth approximately ₦5.23 billion traded across 1,107 deals, while GTCO followed on the value chart with transactions worth approximately ₦4.55 billion across 2,568 deals.
The gainers list was led by SEPLAT (10.00%), UPDCCREIT (9.88%), and LEARNAFRCA (9.49%), while the losers list was topped by RTBRISCOE (- 10.00%), CMFC (-9.86%), and SOVRENINS (- 9.73%)
Sectoral performance was mixed across the board, given that Oil & Gas (+2.49%), Commodity (+1.62%), Insurance (+0.67%), and Industrial (+0.23%) all finished in positive territory, while Banking (-0.85%) and Consumer Goods (-0.39%) both dragged on the index.
