At the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX), on Thursday, equities trading sustained its positive run with the benchmark index closing higher by 0.3 per cent.
At the local bourse on Thursday, demand for Wapco and FBN Holdings stocks spurred a third consecutive gain in the market having appreciated by 3.1 per cent and 1.8 per cent respectively.
Precisely, the All-Share Index (ASI) notched a 0.3 per cent increase to 43,607.94 basis points.
Accordingly, the Year-to-Date return increased to +2.1 per cent.
Investors, thus earned N71.7 billion as the market capitalisation settled at N23.5 trillion as against an opening of N23.4 trillion.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive as 23 tickers gained relative to 12 losers.
BUA Foods appreciated by 10.0 per cent and Academy Press increased by 9.1 per cent to top the gainers’ list, while NEM Insurance and FTN Cocoa shed 7.8 per cent and 7.7 per cent, recording the most significant losses of the day.
Sectoral performance was broadly negative, as the Insurance, Oil & Gas, Industrial Goods and Consumer Goods indices printed losses by 1.4 per cent, 0.8 per cent,0.4 per cent and 0.1 per cent respectively; while the Banking index was the sole gainer with 0.4 per cent increase recorded against the index.
Activities at the local bourse remained unimpressive as the total volume of trades decreased by 85.9 per cent to 174.61 million units, valued at N2.13 billion, and exchanged in 3,715 deals.
FBN Holdings was the most traded stock by volume at 27.09 million units, while newly listed BUA Foods was the most traded stock by value at N544.69 million.
