Bulls on rampage as equity market gains N963bn

Transactions on the floor of Nigerian Exchange on Tuesday closed northward, crossing 150 million mark, as renewed investors’ confidence pushed benchmark NGX All share Index by 1516.10 basis points.

As a result, the NGX Index appreciated by 1.01 per cent to 151456.91 points from 149940.81 points traded the previous day.

Market capitalisation of listed equities gained N963 billion or 1.01 per cent to N96.134 trillion from N95.171 trillion reported the previous day.

Although the market breadth was negative with 30 decliners against 28 advancers, gains recorded in medium stocks and large caps like Buafoods, Vitafoam, Conhall Plc and 25 others lifted the market activities, bringing year to date return higher to 47.15 per cent.

Volume of trades increased by 136.578 million, representing 32.88 per cent as investors traded 551.924 million shares against 415.346 million units traded the previous day, value of transactions declined by 24.39 per cent to settle at N20.537 billion against N27.162 billion in 27518 deals.

An analysis of the trading during the day showed that SCOA Plc led gainers table with 7.74 per cent to close at N7.10 per unit, Omatek followed with a gain of 7.48 per cent to close at N1.58 per share, Canhall Plc up by 6.70 per cent to close at N4.78 per share, Buafoods added 6.54 per cent to close at N692.50 per units, Vitafoam up by 5.92 per cent to close at N94.00 per unit.

On the contrary, Living Trust Insurance topped losers’ chart with 9.91 per cent to close at N4.00 per unit, Conoil Plc trailed with a loss of 5.83 per cent to close at N190.70 per share, AfriPrudential down by 5.69 per cent to close at N14.10 per unit, Sovereign Trust Insurance fell 3.95 per cent to close at N3.65 per unit, NPF Micro Finance Bank declined by 3.75 per cent to close at N3.08 per unit.

The NGX trading result further showed that Fidelity Bank led market activities with 59.116 million shares valued at N1.179 billion, VFD group followed with 39.309 million shares worth N424.662 million, Japaul Gold traded 37.742 million shares cost N94.941 million, Access Holdings company traded 37.364 million shares worth N950.063 million while GTCO Plc traded 31.363 million shares cost N2.918 billion.