THISDAY

Stock Market Appreciate­s by N132.01bn to Halt Two-days of Profit-taking

The Nigerian stock market yesterday halted its two days profit-taking by investors, as gains in Nestle Nigeria Plc and 17 others pushed the overall market capitaliza­tion up by N132.01billion.

The Nigerian Exchange Limited All-Share Index (NGX ASI) gained 233.36 basis points or 0.24 per cent to close at 99,284.38 basis points from 99,051.02 basis points.

The 0.24 per cent NGX ASII gain brings the market’s Yearto-Date growth to 32.8per cent.

Also, market capitalisa­tion rose by N132.01 billion to close at N56.164 trillion from N56.031 trillion it opened for trading.

Sectoral performanc­e was broadly positive, as the NGX Banking Index added 2.5per cent, NGX Oil & Gas Index appreciate­d by 0.3per cent and NGX Consumer Goods Index gained 0.2per cent, while the NGX Insurance Index depreciate­d by 1.5pepr cent.

Meanwhile, the NGX Industrial Goods index closed flat at 4,690.02 basis points

However, investor sentiment, as measured by market breadth was negative, as 18 stocks gained relative to 24 losers. Eterna emerged the highest price gainer of 9.80 per cent to close at N13.45, per share. Red Star Express followed with a gain of 9.76 per cent to close at N3.71, while Stanbic IBTC Holdings rose by 9.62 per cent to close at N57.00, per share.

Fidelity Bank advanced by 8.00 per cent to close at N10.80, while Internatio­nal Breweries rose by 7.84 per cent to close at N3.99, per share.

On the other side, Oando led others on the losers’ chart with 9.86 per cent to close at N12.80, while Linkage Assurance followed with a decline of 9.41 per cent to close at 77 kobo, per share.

Veritas Kapital Assurance went down by 8.70 per cent to close at 63 kobo, while Wapic Insurance depreciate­d by 8.57 per cent to close at 64 kobo, per share.

The total volume traded declined by 11.3 per cent to 308.136 million units, valued at N4.863 billion, and exchanged in 7,690 deals. Transactio­ns in the shares of Fidelity Bank led the activity with 84.050 million shares worth N883.222 million. Oando followed with account of 52.519 million shares valued at N710.806 million, while Veritas Kapital Assurance traded 19.403 million shares valued at N12.446 million.

Unity Bank traded 11.977 million shares worth N15.378 million, while Transnatio­nal Corporatio­n (Transcorp) traded 11.130 million shares worth N117.665 million.