By Chukwuma Umeorah
The Nigerian stock market opened the week on a strong note, with the All-Share Index (ASI) climbing by 0.79 per cent to close at 104,418.95 points from an opening value of 103,598.30 points.
This upward movement translated to N794.81 billion gain for investors as Market capitalization also rose by 1.24 per cent reaching N64.44 trillion, bolstered by the listing of 4,705,800,290 ordinary shares of Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc (GTCO) at N44.50 per share. This listing added N471.4 billion in gains to the equities market by the end of Monday’s trading session. Year-to-date return settled at 1.45 per cent, reflecting growing investor confidence.
The bullish trend was driven by price increases in key stocks such as ACCESSCORP, FBNH, and UBA, which saw gains of 0.89 per cent, 0.92 per cent, and 0.93 per cent, respectively. Additionally, buy interests in NESTLE, which rose by 0.87 per cent, contributed to the positive sentiment.
Investor sentiment remained optimistic, with 38 gainers outpacing 30 losers. Leading the gainers were BETAGLAS, RTBRISCOE, ACCESSCORP, CHELLARAM, and SKYAVN, which advanced by 9.98 per cent, 9.92 per cent, 9.88 per cent, 9.83 per cent, and 9.80 per cent, respectively. On the flip side, MRS, TRANSCOHOT, EUNISELL, JOHNHOLT, and CAVERTON were among the laggards.
Sectoral performance was mixed. The Banking, Consumer Goods, and Commodity indices rose by 4.71 per cent, 1.74 per cent, and 0.39 per cent, respectively, driven by strong performances in key stocks. However, the Insurance, Oil/Gas, and Industrial Goods indices declined by 0.95 per cent, 0.89 per cent and 0.03 per cent respectively, as investors sold off positions in these sectors.
Trading activity was robust, with the number of deals and total value traded increasing by 52.42 per cent and 54.72 per cent respectively, to 17,196 deals and N13.3 billion. Despite this, the total volume traded declined by 9.01 per cent to 518.28 million units. ACCESSCORP was the most traded stock by volume, with 51 million units exchanged across 1,053 deals, while ZENITHBANK led in value, contributing N1.7 billion to the day’s transactions.