Transactions on the Nigerian stock market yesterday closed on a positive note to open trading for the week as the market capitalisation grew by N27 billion due to investors’ buy sentiments in the insurance, consumer goods and oil & gas sectors.
The All-Share Index (ASI) grew by 51.48 absolute points, representing a rise of 0.12 per cent, to close at 41,814.74 points. Similarly, the overall market capitalisation value gained N27 billion to close at N21.821 trillion.
The market positive performance was driven by price appreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks which are; Airtel Africa, Total Nigeria, Unilever Nigeria, PZ Cussons Nigeria and Guinness Nigeria.
In this trading week, analysts at United Capital Plc expect the third quarter (Q3), 2021 earnings season to pick up.
“We remain upbeat about market performance and investor sentiment as we expect market participants to continue cherry-picking fundamentally sound stocks, while also positioning for full year 2021 dividends,” they said.
Furthermore, the market breadth closed positive, recording 28 gainers against 20 losers. PZ Cussons Nigeria recorded the highest price gain of 9.32 per cent to close at N6.45 per share. Mutual Benefits Assurance followed with a gain of 7.14 per cent to close at 30 kobo and Unilever Nigeria went up 6.90 per cent to close at N15.50, per share.
AXA Mansard Insurance was up by 6.49 per cent to close at N2.46, while Cutix appreciated by 5.79 per cent to close at N6.40, per share. On the other hand, Abbey Mortgage Bank led the losers’ chart by 9.47 per cent to close at 86 kobo, per share. Prestige Assurance followed with a decline of 8.55 per cent to close at 43 kobo while Regency Alliance Insurance declined by 7.32 per cent to close at 38 kobo per share.
CI Leasing declined by 6.38 per cent to close at N4.40 while Nigerian Exchange Group (NGXGroup) shed 6.36 per cent to close at N20.60, per share.
Also, the total volume of trade rose by 32.21 per cent to 674.499 million units, valued at N7.592 billion, and exchanged in 5,432 deals.
Transactions in the shares of FBN Holdings (FBNH) topped the activity chart with 350.542 million shares valued at N4.346 billion. Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) followed with 45.643 million shares worth N347.799 million, while Universal Insurance traded 33.915 million shares valued at N6.783 million.
Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp) traded 32.577 million shares valued at N33.205 million while Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO) transacted 21.476 million shares worth N614.370 million.