Equity Market Records N294bn Gain

The equity market sustained its bullish trend on Tuesday as investors gained N294bn.

At the close of trading, the market capitalisation of the Nigerian Exchange and the All-Share Index rose by 0.53 per cent to settle at N55.65tn and 98,383.04 basis points, respectively.

Market participation also increased as the volume of traded units increased by 52.49 per cent to 559,608,966 units.

Bullish activity dominated the day’s trade with the exchange recording more gainers at 28 than losers at 14.

Leading the gainers’ chart was Dangote Sugar with a 10 per cent appreciation to N42.90, Morison Industries Plc stocks rose by 9.88 per cent to close at N4.45 and National Salt Company gained 9.88 per cent to close trading at N37.25 per share.

Among the notable losers in the equity market were Sovereign Trust Insurance which lost 9.52 per cent to close at N0.38, Universal Insurance Plc shed 8.33 per cent to close trading at N0.33 and The Initiate Plc lost per cent to close at N 1.71.

Seplat Energy Plc was the most traded securities by value, amounting to N1.60bn worth of shares exchanged in 51 deals, while Abbey Mortgage Bank led the volume chart with 277,527,586 units traded in eight deals.

On the sectoral front, five indexes gained and one index dipped, indicating good performance across sectors.

Buy interest in UBA, First Bank Holdings, Seplat, and Japaul Gold and Ventures Plc helped the Banking and Oil and Gas indexes to rise 2.4 per cent and 1.9 per cent, respectively.

Similarly, the consumer goods and insurance indexes increased by 1.1 per cent and 0.7 per cent, respectively.

Conversely, the Industrial goods sector was the only laggard, declining by 0.20 per cent.