The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Ltd closed trading activities on Thursday on a bullish trend rallying by N328 billion ahead of the country’s 61st independence day holiday.
Specifically, the market capitalisation which opened trading at N20.627 trillion inched higher by N328 billion or 1.59 per cent to close at N20.955 trillion.
Also, in spite of the shortened trading session, the All-Share Index rose above the 40,000 mark to close at 40,221.17 against 39,592.29 on Wednesday – the highest level since February 2021
The upturn was impacted by gains recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Dangote Cement, Presco, Okomu Oil, Nigerian Breweries, and May and Baker.
Analysts at Cordros Research expected the bears to dominate trading activities in the coming week.
“We expect the bears to dominate market performance in the coming week, as investors cash out on the gains across bellwether stocks this week.
“However, we expect this to be tempered by bargain hunting activities from early birds ahead of the third quarter earnings season.
“However, we advise investors to take positions in only fundamentally justified stocks as the weak macro environment remains a significant headwind for corporate earnings,” they said.
Accordingly, the market breadth closed positive with 20 gainers in contrast with 14 laggards.
University Press led the gainers’ chart in percentage terms by 9.82 per cent to close at N1.23 per share.
Pharma Deko followed with a gain 9.81 per cent to close at N2.35, while May and Baker appreciated by 9.17 per cent to close at N4.88 per share.
Sovereign Trust Insurance rose by 9.09 per cent to close at 24k, while Consolidated Hallmark Insurance appreciated by 7.55 per cent to close at 57k per share.
On the other hand, Chams led the losers’ chart in percentage terms by 8.70 per cent to close at 21k per share.
AXA Mansard Insurance followed with 4.12 per cent to close at N2.33, while Jaiz Bank shed 3.23 per cent to close at 60k per share.
Livestock Feeds lost 2.69 per cent to close at N2.17 per share.
Japaul Gold and Ventures and Unilever depreciated by 2.22 per cent each to close at 44k and N13.20 per share, respectively.
Transactions in the shares of Transcorp Hotels topped the activity chart with 763.89 million shares valued at N2.87 billion.
FBN Holdings followed with 53.76 million shares worth N430.46 million, while Transcorp traded 23.31 million shares valued at N22.19 million.
Guaranty Trust Holding Company traded 19.42 million shares valued at N544.35 million, while Wapic Insurance transacted 18.27 million shares worth N8.77 million.
In all, the total volume of shares traded increased by 120.89 per cent to 1.05 billion shares worth N7.42 billion traded in 3,752 deals.
This was in contrast with 474.37 million shares valued at N4.01 billion transacted in 3,547 deals on Wednesday.
