August 24, (THEWILL) – Billionaire businessmen, Tony Elumelu and Aliko Dangote, reaped huge gains as the equities market rose to a record N35.844 trillion on Wednesday from N35.842 previously. The NGX All-Share Index climbed to 65,492.92 points from 65,488.67 points with gains in Transcorp (+7.14% against N4.80 ) and Dangote Sugar (+6.95% from N40.00 ). United Capital closed (+0.35% against N14.35).
The gains outweighed losses in Zenith Bank (-1.18% from N33.40 ), GTCO (-1.78% against N35.80 ) and A (-0.30% from N16.80) keeping the market in the green. Consequently, the ASI’s year-to-date (YTD) return rose to 27.79%, while the market capitalisation gained ₦2.27 billion.
Analysis of Wednesday’s market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 1.80%. A total of 348.32m shares valued at ₦4.05bn were exchanged in 6,237 deals. Transcorp (+7.14%) led the volume and value charts with 144.71m units traded in deals worth ₦682.61m.
Market breadth closed negative at a 1.27-to-1 ratio with declining issues outnumbering advancing ones. Con Oil (-10.00%) led eighteen (18) others on the laggard’s log while Transcorp Hotel (+8.99%) topped fourteen (14) others in the leader’s league.
At the currency market, the Naira slumped marginally to N773.42/$ against N770.72/$ at the previous trading on the I&E window, while the parallel market exchanged N850/$ on Wednesday. .
Market turnover recorded $45.34 million – one of the lowest since the rate channels unification on June 14. The lowest turnover occurred on July 17 with $34.55 million while the highest was $311.82 million on June 16.
About the Author
Sam Diala is a Bloomberg Certified Financial Journalist with over a decade of experience in reporting Business and Economy. He is Business Editor at THEWILL Newspaper, and believes that work, not wishes, creates wealth.
