Stock market opens week with N53.51bn gain

The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Ltd. on Monday recorded a gain of N53.51billion following investors’ interest in Union Bank and Access Bank.

Specifically, the market capitalization garnered N53.51billion or 0.17 percent to close at N26.17trillion from N26.125 trillion on Friday.

Also, the All-Share Index advanced by 99.26 points or 0.17per cent to close at 48,543.36 against 48,459.65 achieved on Friday.

Accordingly, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date gains increased to 3.4 percent and 13.7 percent respectively.

The result was impacted by gains recorded by Guaranty Trust Holding Company(GTCo), United Bank for Africa (UBA), Zenith Bank Stanbic Bank and First Bank Nigeria Holdings (FBNH), WAPCO and Dangote Cement.

Sectoral performance was positive, as Consumer Goods increased 2.5 percent, followed by Oil & Gas with 1.4 percent while Insurance and Banking rose by 0.4 percent and 0.3 percent respectively.

The Industrial Goods, however, dropped by 1.1 percent, making it the only index loser in today’s trading.

Overall, the market was positive with 42 gainers relative to 15 losers.

UPCredit drove the gainers’ chart in percentage terms by 10 percent to close at N3.85 per share.

Ikeja Hotel and Eternal Oil followed with a gain of 9.92 percent to close at N1.85 and N7.31 per share, respectively.

Oando went up by 9.9 percent to close at N6.44 while Sky Aviation appreciated by 9.89 percent to close at N7 per share.

On the other hand, Unity Bank and Academy Press led the losers’ chart in percentage terms by six percent to close at 47k and N1.10 per share respectively.

Japaul Gold followed with 5.88 percent to close at 32k per share.

UPDC shed 4.49 percent to close at 85k, while WAPIC lost 4.35 percent to close at 44k per share.

Also, the total volume traded rose by 24.8 percent to 328.39 million units valued at N4.04 billion and exchanged in 5,711 deals.

Transactions in the shares of Zenith Bank topped the activity chart with 35.84 million shares valued at N912.15 million.

Oando followed with 30.817 million shares worth N198.28 million, while Mansard traded 23.07 million shares valued at N58.73 million.

Transcorp traded 20.68 million shares valued at N22.25 million, while FBNH transacted 20.09 million shares worth N240.04 million.