Equities Market Opens Trading Week By N79bn Gain

The Nigerian equities market, yesterday, began the trading week in positive territory, resulting in investors gaining N79 billion.

The All-Share Index gained 125.86 per cent, representing a growth of 0.09 per cent, to close at 145,880.77 points. Similarly, the overall market capitalisation value rose by N79 billion to close at N92.294 trillion.

The market’s positive performance was driven by price appreciation in large and medium-capitalised stocks, which are BUA Foods, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Julius Berger, NEM Insurance, and Nigerian Enamelware.

On market outlook, United Capital Plc said, “We expect investor positioning to remain tilted toward fundamentally strong financial services stocks, particularly banks and insurers, given their resilient earnings profiles and attractive valuations.

“However, pockets of profit-taking are likely in highly capitalised counters following recent gains.

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Market activity may reflect cautious sentiment, with selective buying interest in quality names counterbalanced by intermittent sell-offs to lock in gains.”

As measured by market breadth, investor sentiment closed positively as 41 stocks advanced, while 36 declined. AIICO Insurance, SUNU Assurance, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, UPDC, Veritas Kapital Assurance, Universal Insurance, and The Initiates Plc (TIP) recorded the highest price gains of 10 per cent each to close at N3.85, N5.50, N111.10, N8.69, N2.31, N1.21, and N13.20, respectively, per share.

Cornerstone Insurance followed with a gain of 9.98 per cent to close at N7.05, while AXA Mansard Insurance rose by 9.97 per cent to close at N16.10 per share.

On the other hand, Abbey Mortgage Bank and Associated Bus Company led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent each to close at N5.67 and N4.50 respectively, while UACN followed with a decline of 9.99 per cent to close at N75.25 per share.

Haldane McCall lost 9.92 per cent to close at N4.36, while VFD Group declined by 9.70 per cent to close at N12.10 per share.

The total volume traded declined by 4.5 per cent to 2.116 million units, valued at N19.400 billion, and exchanged in 40,435 deals. Transactions in the shares of Linkage Assurance topped the activity chart with 703.588 million shares valued at N1.587 billion. Universal Insurance followed with 230.536 million shares worth N278.907 million, while AIICO Insurance traded 154.727 million shares valued at N595.341 million.

Sterling Financial Holdings Company traded 120.198 million shares valued at N987.860 million, while Veritas Kapital Assurance transacted 29.051 million shares worth N668.227 million.