Equities Market Opens Week Low, Declines By 0.04%

The domestic stock market yesterday began the week on a mixed note as the All-Share Index edged down by 0.04 per cent.

The All-Share Index (ASI) lost by 41.70 points, representing a loss of 0.04 per cent to close at 105,891.33 points. Despite this decline, market capitalisation surged by 0.73 per cent or N477 billion to close at N66.069 trillion.
The market capitalisation gain is driven by Zenith Bank’s listing of 9.67 billion ordinary shares, arising from its capital offers.

Meanwhile, the overall downturn was impacted by losses recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Julius Berger Nigeria, Zenith Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA), Fidelity Bank and Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO).

Looking forward, United Capital Plc said “the equities market is expected to maintain its positive momentum as investors continue to position themselves ahead of the full year, 2024 earnings season and possible corporate action declarations.

Nevertheless, given the elevated interest rate environment in the fixed-income market, we still expect bearish sentiments to linger in the background.”

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However, investor sentiment, as measured by market breadth, was positive as 44 stocks advanced, while 25 declined. Beta Glass, Smart Products Nigeria and Stanbic IBTC Holdings recorded the highest price gain of 10 per cent each to close at N95.15, 22 kobo and N68.20 respectively, per share.

Honeywell Flour Mills followed with a gain of 9.98 per cent to close at N10.47, while Eterna and Northern Nigeria Flour Mills (NNFM) rose by 9.96 per cent each to close at N40.30 and N80.60 respectively, per share.

On the other hand, International Energy Insurance led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent to close at N2.25, per share. R.T. Briscoe Nigeria followed with a decline of 9.63 per cent to close at N2.44, while Julius Berger declined by 8.44 per cent to close at N128.00, per share.

Deap Capital Management and Trust depreciated by 8.26 per cent to close at N1.00, while DAAR Communications declined by 7.41 per cent to close at 75 kobo, per share.

Also, the total volume traded rose by 21.15 per cent to 567.289 billion units, valued at N10.414 billion, and exchanged in 17,843 deals. Transactions in the shares of Secure Electronic Technology topped the activity chart with 84.073 million shares valued at N55.194 million. Fidelity Bank followed with 67.831 million shares worth N1.361 billion, while Access Holdings traded 40.206 million shares valued at N1.140 billion.

UPDC traded 36.649 million shares valued at N103.787 million, while AIICO Insurance sold 27.233 million shares worth N47.453 million.