NGX opens week strong with 1.99% rally as investors appetite soars

The Nigerian equities market extended its bullish momentum into the new week, as the benchmark NGX All-Share Index (ASI) surged by 2,808.71 points, representing a 1.99 per cent gain to close at 144,071.76 points.

Monday’s rally brought the market’s weekly return to 6.59 per cent, with a 19.08 per cent rise over four weeks and an impressive 39.98 per cent year-to-date (YtD) gain. The overall market capitalization appreciated by N1.78 trillion, settling at N91.2 trillion at the close of trading.

Investor sentiment remained positive across the board, with 47 gainers outweighing 23 losers out of the 127 equities that participated in the day’s session. UPDC Plc, Lasaco Assurance, and Royal Exchange topped the advancers’ chart with the maximum allowable daily increase of 10 per cent each, closing at N5.94, N2.86, and N1.65 per share respectively.

UAC Nigeria followed closely with a 9.97 per cent uptick to N97.10, while Sovereign Insurance and Champion Breweries rose by 9.94 per cent and 9.91 per cent respectively.

On the flip side, Transcorp Power and Academy Press led the losers’ chart, each declining by 10 per cent to close at N288.00 and N9.90 per share respectively. John Holt lost 9.59 per cent, Total Nigeria dropped 9.22 per cent, while ETI and CWG shed 9.21 per cent and 9.09 per cent respectively.

Market activity, however, witnessed a slowdown as total turnover stood at 811.09 million unit of shares valued at N19.47 billion, traded in 35,961 deals.

This represented a 25 per cent decline in volume and 27 per cent dip in value compared to the previous trading session, though the number of deals increased by 4 per cent.

FCMB Group recorded the highest volume of trades with 84.9 million shares, followed by Universal Insurance Company trading 82.5 million units while Fidelity Bank exchanged 45.4 million and Aiico Insurance traded 40.1 million units.