Demand For NNFM, 27 Others Lift Equities Market By N347bn

The Nigerian equities market yesterday closed trading in the positive territory, as gains in Dangote Cement Plc and 38 others lifted the overall capitalization up by N347 billion.

The All-Share Index rose by 194.69 per cent, representing a gain of 0.19 per cent, to close at 104,744.43 points. Similarly, the overall market capitalisation value gained N347 billion to close at N64.868 trillion.

The market positive performance was driven by price appreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks which are; Dangote Cement, Northern Nigeria Flour Mills (NNFM), Skyway Aviation Handling Company, NASCON Allied Industries and Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO).

Investor sentiment, as measured by market breadth, closed positive, as 39 stocks advanced, while 25 declined. Chellaram and Honeywell Flour Mills recorded the highest price gain of 10 per cent each to close at N5.94 and N9.35 respectively, per share. NNFM followed with a gain of 9.98 per cent to close at N55.10, while Red Star Express and Skyway Aviation Handling Company rose by 9.98 per cent each to close at N5.00 and N40.00 respectively, per share.

On the other hand, Guinea Insurance led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent to close at 72 kobo, per share. RT Briscoe Nigeria followed with a decline of 9.70 per cent to close at N2.70, while Veritas Kapital Assurance dipped by 9.30 per cent to close at N1.17, per share.

May & Baker Nigeria shed 8.95 per cent to close at N8.65, while DAAR Communications lost 7.14 per cent to close at 78 kobo, per share.

The total volume traded rose by 18.0 per cent to 497.363 million units, valued at N11.842 billion, and exchanged in 13,716 deals. Transactions in the shares of FBN Holdings (FBNH) topped the activity chart with 83.138 million shares valued at N2.417 billion. Veritas Kapital Assurance followed with 39.959 million shares worth N46.934 million, while Universal Insurance traded 26.822 million shares valued at N19.145 million.

Fidelity Bank traded 24.764 million shares valued at N481.035 million, while FCMB Group transacted 22.486 million shares worth N249.323 million.