Upbeat Performance As Equities Advance By N88bn  

The Nigerian equities market, yesterday sustained prior session’s gain as the overall capitalisation rose by N88 billion following buying interest in Nigerian Breweries Plc and 28 others.

The All-Share Index rose by 161.53 per cent, representing a gain of 0.31 per cent, to close at 52,580.86 points. Similarly, the overall market capitalisation value gained N88 billion to close at N28.631 trillion.

The market negative performance was driven by price depreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks which are; Nigerian Breweries, MRS Oil Nigeria, Cadbury Nigeria, Vitafoam Nigeria and Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO).

Analysts at GTI Securities Limited said: “the Nigerian Stock Market continued its positive dominance in the face of a worrisome inflation rate of 22.22 per cent.

“We expect this strain to continue as investors focus on fundamentally sound companies, dividend payments and impressive first-quarter (Q1) 2023 results.”

As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive, as 29 stocks gained relative to 18 losers. MRS Oil Nigeria recorded the highest price gain of 9.93 per cent to close at N37.10, per share. Nigerian Breweries followed with a gain of 9.63 per cent to close at N38.70 and Cornerstone Insurance up by 9.46 per cent to close at 81 kobo, per share.

FTN Cocoa processors rose by 8.82 per cent to close at 37 kobo, while Royal Exchange gained 8.33 per cent to close at 52 kobo, per share.

On the other hand, Consolidated Hallmark Insurance led the losers’ chart by 7.69 per cent to close at 60 kobo, per share. Sovereign Trust Insurance followed with a decline of 6.52 per cent to close at 43 kobo, while Transnational Corporation (Transcorp) lost 5.23 per cent to close at N2.90, per share.

Caverton Offshore Support Group declined 4.76 per cent to close at N1.00, while Wapic Insurance shed 4.44 per cent to close at 43 kobo, per share.

The total volume traded increased by 18 per cent to 680.796 million units, valued at N7.892 billion, and exchanged in 6,666 deals.Transactions in the shares of Fidelity Bank topped the activity chart with 254.051 million shares valued at N1.418 billion.

Access Holdings followed with 112.827 million shares worth N1.131 billion, while Transcorp traded 63.391 million shares valued at N185.592 million.

GTCO traded 59.992 million shares valued at N1.568 billion, while Zenith Bank transacted 31.697 million shares worth N794.384 million.