Equity market sustains bullish trend, gains N152bn

The nation’s equity market on Thursday sustained a positive trend appreciating by N152 billion bulls continue to dominate market activities.

Market capitalization of listed equities increased by 0.25 per cent to close at N59.867 trillion from N59.867 trillion reported the previous day.

The NGX All Share Index also gained 250.91 basis points to 98760.59 points from 98509.68 points traded on Wednesday.

The market growth was driven by gain in the shares of Tantalizer, Conoil Plc, Afriprudential, Custodian Insurance Gold breweries and 25 other firms.

As a result, year to date return went up to32.08 per cent as 30 companies closed in positive direction against 21 firms that took negative direction.

 An analysis of the investment showed that Tantalizer and Conoil Plc led gainers table with 10 per cent each to close at N1.76 and N387.20 per unit respectively.

Custodian Insurance followed with a gain of 9.92 per cent to close at N13.85 per unit, Afriprudential gained 9.79 per cent to close at N15.70 per unit, Gold Breweries added 9.75 per cent to close at N7.88 per share.

On the contrary, Daar Communications topped losers’ chart, dropping by 8.47 per cent to close at N0.54 per unit, Caverton Business Solutions trailed with a loss of 8.16 per cent to close at N1.80 per unit, Omatek fell by 7.46 per cent to close at N0.62 per unit, ABC Transport down by 7.41 per cent to close at N1.25 per share, Conhall Plc fell by 7.11 per cent to close at N2.22 per unit.

Volume of transactions went up 169.549 million, representing 52.97 per cent as investors traded 489.654 million shares valued at N7.057 billion billion in 8304 deals against 320.101 million shares valued at N6.477 billion exchanged hands the previous day in 7943 deals.

Trading the shares of FCMB group led market activities with 77.631 million shares valued at N698.562 million, Etranzact followed with 70.130 million shares worth N473.408 million, HMCall traded 47.828 million shares cost N234.316 million, Japaul Gold traded 33.575 million shares valued at N73.789 million while NSLTECH exchanged 16.745 million shares valued at N8.778 million.