Stock Market Gains N21bn, Reverses Previous Day’s Loss

The Nigerian equity market on Tuesday rallied 0.19 per cent to reverse previous day negative sentiment ahead of temporary closure of its trading floor that begins today.

The market breadth closed positively, recording 19 gainers as against 10 losers.

The NSE on Monday said that in order to give its dealing members enough notice, effective Wednesday, March 25, all its trading floors would be temporarily closed, adding that remote trading would continue and the NSE staff would be available on all its digital platforms to provide support.

Consequently, the All-Share Index appreciated by 40.18 basis points or 0.19 per cent to close at 21,741.16 index points as against 21,700.98 recorded in the previous trading session. Market capitalisation of equities grew by N21bn from N11.308tn the previous day to N11.329tn as market sentiment remained on the positive territory.

Meanwhile, a turnover of 330.1 million shares exchanged in 4,561 deals was recorded in the day’s trading.

The premium subsector was the most active (measured by turnover volume); with 160.4 million shares exchanged by investors in 2,156 deals.

Volume in the subsector was largely driven by activities in the shares of Access Bank Plc and Zenith Bank Plc.

Also, banking subsector boosted by the activities in the shares of GTBank Plc and Fidelity Bank Plc followed with a turnover of 107.7 million shares in 988 deals.

A further analysis of the day’s trading showed that in percentage terms, the NPF MFB Plc topped the day’s gainers’ table with 9.52 per cent to close at N1.15 per share while Stanbic IBTC Plc followed with 9.43 per cent to close at N26.10 per share. Transcorp Plc added 8.93 per cent to close at 61 kobo per share.

On the flip side, Caverton Plc led the losers with a drop of 10 per cent to close at N2.25 per share while Conoil Plc shed 9.93 per cent to close at N13.15 per share. Nascon Plc trailed with 9.57 per cent to close at N8.50 per share.