Tuesday saw the return of the equity market to the green after two days of negative activity.
According to The PUNCH, after losing about N2.5 trillion over the course of the previous two trading days, investors saw N165 billion added to their holdings.
The market capitalization finished at N55.46 trillion, the benchmark index settled at 101,362.38 points, and the Nigerian Exchange gained 0.30 per cent. This boosted the market’s year-to-date gain to 35.56 per cent.
Eleven stocks fell and 43 gained as market sentiment stayed negative.
Buy-interest drove prices of mid-cap and large-cap equities, including FBN Holdings, BUA Cement, Eterna Plc, and United Bank for Africa, up 9.96%, 4.93%, 2.03%, and 0.21 per cent, respectively.
On the negative side, the biggest losers on the chart were Okomu Oil (-10%), Morison Industries Plc (-9.69%), Sterling Financial Holdings (-9.58%), JAPAULGOLD (-9.34%), and Caverton (-9.19%).
The stocks of MTN Nigeria, Zenith Bank, and Access Corp were the market movers.
The consumer goods and insurance sectors fell by 2.50 per cent and 0.24 per cent, respectively, while the banking, oil/gas, and industrial indices increased by 0.31 per cent, 0.07 per cent, and 1.60 per cent, respectively.
Levels of trading activity were muted despite 1.6% and 1.5% declines in total deals and traded value, respectively, to 8,611 trades and N6.55 billion.
To 302.74 million units, the overall traded volume did, however, rise by 18.19 per cent.
FBN Holdings emerged as the most actively traded stock in terms of both volume and value, having exchanged 39.38 million units for a total of N1.10 billion across 339 transactions.
