Following a price uptick in high-capitalized stocks as well as sustained bullish trading by investors on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX), its market capitalization has now risen by N711 billion in two consecutive trading sessions.
The market’s gaining streak had come to a halt on Tuesday owing to profit-taking in Total, Presco, and 31 others. However, renewed interest in the shares of BUA Cement, AccessCorp, and GTCO drove the benchmark index 1.33 percent higher at the close of trading on Wednesday.
Extending gains for the second consecutive session, the domestic bourse on Thursday closed higher as the All Share Index (ASI) gained 0.81 percent to close at 62,019.88 points on the back of gains in Dangote Cement, Zenith Bank, and Stanbic.
Furthermore, market capitalization, which had nudged higher by N440.4 billion to close at N33.500 trillion from N33.059 trillion in the previous trading session, gained N270 billion to close at N33.770 trillion.
This means that the fortunes of investors have now risen to N711 billion. Accordingly, the market remains on track for the first weekly gain in the trading month, as the year-to-date (YTD) return currently stands at 21.01 percent.
Reacting to the development, analysts and market operators say that the new administration’s foreign currency and economic reforms are bringing investors back to the stock market, and this was evident in the market’s share trading volume as the total volume and value of stocks traded increased significantly by 543.2 percent and 821.8 percent to 5.4 billion and N95.0 billion, respectively.
This is against 846.3 million units and N10.3 billion, which changed hands in 9,815 deals. Banks have emerged as the biggest winners, with an index of shares rising by 23 percent last month, the most since 2018.
This has continued this month with banks dominating the activity chart in trading sessions. FBN Holdings sold 4.69 billion shares valued at N87.8 billion, FCMB was next, selling 126.76 million shares valued at N744.09 million while AccessCorp transacted 56.48 million shares valued at N1.02 billion.
Investors’ appetite for stocks was huge, as 54 equities appreciated in value while 18 others depreciated. Conoil Plc and Eterna led the gainers’ chart with 10 percent gains to close at N102.30 and N25.85 per share, respectively. Learn Africa followed with 10 percent to close at N3.52, MRS Oil garnered 10 percent to close at N91.30, and Union Bank of Nigeria gained 10 percent to close at N8.25.
