The Nigerian Exchange’s equities market rebounded on Thursday by gaining 0.70% after suffering its first loses in 2024 on Wednesday.
The local bourse added 572.70 points to close at 82,597.08 points, while Investors’ wealth grew by ₦310 billion.
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The bench-mark NGX All-Share Index gained 0.70% to close the day at 82,597.08 points, while the equities market capitalization lost by the same percentage points to close at ₦45.195 trillion.
Activity Level
The activity level waned on Thursday as the volume of shares trade, value of shares trade and the no of deals done decreased. While the volume of shares traded declined by 46.55%, the value of shares traded and no of deals done decreased by 43.20% and 26.23% respectively.
By the end of trading on Thursday, 877.28 million shares valued at ₦14.41 billion had exchanged hands in 14,919 deals.
Shares of Transnational Corporation Plc (NGX: TRANSCORP), Sterling Financial Holdings Company Plc (NGX: STERLINGNG), and Access Holdings Plc (NGX: ACCESSCORP) were the most traded stocks by volume with 74.53 million, 54.32 million and 54.11 million shares respectively.
Shares of Zenith Bank Plc (NGX: ZENITHBANK), United Bank for Africa Plc (NGX: UBA) and Access Holdings Plc (NGX: ACCESSCORP) were the most traded by value, with their shares worth ₦1.97 billion, ₦1.57 billion and ₦1.50 billion respectively exchanging hands on Wednesday.
Top gainers and losers
Investor sentiment strengthened to 2.2x as 48 stocks advanced against 22 stocks that declined on Thursday.
The top five gainers were;
- Guinea Insurance Plc (NGX: GUINEAINS): It gained 10% to close at ₦0.44.
- Royal Exchange Plc (NGX: ROYALEX): It gained 10% to close at ₦0.99.
- Julius Berger Nigeria Plc (NGX: JBERGER): It gained 9.92% to close at ₦56.50.
- Cadbury Nigeria Plc (NGX: CADBURY): It gained 9.77% to close at N21.90.
- The Initiates Plc (NGX: TIP): It gained 10% to close at ₦1.69.
The top five losers on Wednesday were;
- Abbey Mortgage Bank Plc (NGX: ABBEYBDS): It lost 9.9% to close at ₦2.73.
- Ikeja Hotels Plc (NGX: IKEJAHOTEL): It lost 9.9% to close at ₦2.07.
- Caverton Offshore Support Group Plc (NGX: CAVERTON): It lost 9.66% to close at ₦1.87.
- Daar Communications Plc (NGX: DAARCOMM): It lost 9.38% to close at ₦0.87.
- NPF Microfinance Bank Plc (NGX: NPFMCFRBK): It lost 7.98% to close at ₦7.91.
All the five indices under our watch closed positively.
- Banking Index: The gained 2.7% on the back of gains by FBNH (6.78%) and UBA (4.94%).
- Industrial Index: The industrial index gained 0.2%, dragged on by gains in BUACEMENT (0.54%).
- Consumer Goods Index: The index advanced by 0.4% due to buy interest in CABDBURY (9.77%), CHAMPION (9.33%) and INTBREW (9.01%).
- Oil & Gas Index: It gained 0.4% following gains on the counters of OANDO (3.04%) and ETERNA (9.66%).
- Insurance Index: The index gained only 0.5% as gains by ROYALEX (10%), GUINEAINS (10%), VERITASKAP (8.89%) and SUNUASSUR (8.33%) and others got diluted by the loses in insurance stocks with higher capitalization; WAPIC (-5.88%), LASACO (-5.83%), LINKASSURE (-3.33%) and CORNEST (-3.33%).
Nnamdi Maduakor is a Writer, Investor and Entrepreneur