October 18, (THEWILL) – The rally recorded in major bank stocks led to a N16 billion gain on the equities market Wednesday as investors intensified their hunt for key bellwether stocks.
This extended the bullish trend of yesterday to a positive territory with the NGX-ASI rising by 4 basis points to close at 67,353.23 against 67.326.12 points on the previous day.
Market capitalisation rose to N37,004 trillion against N36,988 prior, resulting in a N16 billion gain.
Gains in Zenith Bank (+1.21% against N33), GTCO (+0.71% to share price of N35.70) and UBA (+1.62% against N18.50) drove the market into the green.
This was despite losses in Access Corporation (-1.18% from N16.95 share price), FBNH (-0.31% against N16.10) and WAPCO (-1.02% from N29.30).
As a result, the year-to-date (YTD) return rose to 31.42%,
Analysis of Wednesday’s market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 9.10%.
A total of 397.56m shares valued at ₦4.70 billion were exchanged in 6,165 deals. Wemabnk (+0.64%) led the volume chart with 88.99 million units traded while GTCO (+0.71%) led the value chart in deals worth ₦828.48 million.
Market breadth closed negative at a 1.08-to-1 ratio with declining issues outnumbering advancing ones. African Prudential (-7.14%) topped thirteen (13) others on the laggard’s table, while Eterna (+6.86%) led twelve (12) others on the leader’s table.
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.
