Follow Us on Google
By Chukwuma Umeorah
The local equities market commenced the year on a high note, with the All-Share Index (ASI) rising by 0.25 per cent to close at 103,180.14 points on Thursday.
This added N154.7 billion to the market capitalisation, which now stands at N62.92 trillion.
The year-to-date (YTD) return also mirrored this growth, standing at 0.25 per cent after first day of trading. Sectoral performance was largely positive, led by the insurance sector, which recorded an impressive 9.50 per cent gain. Banking and consumer goods followed with gains of 0.27 per cent and 0.16 per cent, respectively. However, the oil & gas and industrial goods sectors posted marginal declines of 0.03 per cent and 0.16 per cent.
Investor sentiment remained strong, with 58 gainers dominating eight decliners. Among the top gainers were Cutix, Intenegins, Mansard, NCR, and Royalex, all achieving the maximum 10 per cent daily price appreciation. On the flip side, Ellahlakes and Nascon led the laggards.
Trading activity surged with 829.75 million shares valued at N5.67 billion exchanged in 11,752 transactions. Royalex led trading volume with 290.9 million shares worth N318.6 million.
In the fixed-income market, the Nigerian Interbank Offered Rate (NIBOR) declined across all maturities, signaling liquidity in the banking system. Similarly, the Nigerian Interbank Treasury Bills True Yield (NITTY) fell, while the average secondary market yield on Treasury bills moderated to 25.51 per cent.
Meanwhile, the naira depreciated by 0.36 per cent at the official market, closing at N1,541.36 per dollar, and eased further in the parallel market, ending the day at N1,655 per dollar.
