Following gains recorded in many bluechip stocks, especially Dangote Cement Plc, positive sentiments persisted on the equities sector of th Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) as the all-share index (ASI) appreciated by 0.3 per cent.
At the close of transactions yesterday, market capitalisation of listed equities increased by 0.33 per cent to N92.798 trillion from N92.49 trillion reported the previous day.
The NGX all share index also rose by 485.24 basis points to 146204.33 points from 145719.09 points traded on Wednesday. The market breath was positive with 32 advancers against 21 decliner, bringing year to date return to 42.05 per cent.
Volume of trades declined by 178.736 million, representing 33.99 per cent as investors traded 346.989 million shares against 525.725 million units traded the previous day.
Value of transactions was up by 12.94 per cent to settle at N27.425 billion against N24.287 billion in 24691 deals. Market performance across sectors was largely positive, with gains recorded in five indices, while the oil and gas index ended the session flat.
The industrial goods and insurance indices advanced by 0.7 pee cent and 0.6 per cent respectively, driven by price appreciation in Dangote cement,, WAPCO, Sunu Assurance and AIICO, which gained two per cent, one per cent, 10 per cent and one per cent respectively.
Similarly, renewed buying interest in Dangote Sugar, NB, GTCO, and Stanbic lifted the consumer goods and banking indices by 0.4 per cent and 0.3 per cent.
Further breakdown of the report showed that Eunisell Plc and Caverton Business Solutions led gainers table with 10 per cent each to close at N44 and N6.93 kobo respectively, SUNU Assurance followed with a gain of 9.9 per cent to close at N5.77 kobo. IMG added 9.1 per cent to close at N35.95 kobo. Mecure gained 8.81 per cent to close at N28.40 kobo.
On the contrary, FTNCocoa topped losers chart, declining by 6.67 per cent to close at N5.6 per unit, Tantalizer trailed with a drop of 3.35 per cent to close at N2.31 kobo. Fidelity Bank down by 2.38 per cent to close at N20.50 kobo.
PZ declined by 2.18 per cent to close at N38.15 kobo while VeritasKapital dipped by 1.9 per cent to close at N2.06 kobo. Trading in the shares of Fidelity Bank led market activities with 42 million shares valued at N861.535 million, Dangote Cement followed with account of 20.923 million shares cost N11.002 billion.
Sterling Bank exchanged 19.822 million shares valued at N162.93 million, Jaiz Bank traded 19.487 million shares valued at N85.274 million while Chams Plc sold a total of 17.69 million shares worth N76.984 million.
