Closing the week, the Nigerian equities ended on a positive note as the All-Share Index closed 1.68% stronger to settle at 65,003.39 points as against 63,930.72 points the previous day.
Market capitalisation rose to N35.39 trillion from N34.81 trillion the previous day, with investors gaining N584 billion on Friday.
Gains in Tier-1 banks, ZENITHBANK (+8.82% on share price of N35.15) , GTCO (+10.00% from share price of N38.50) and STANBIC (+10.00% against N62.70 share price) drove the market’s strong performance. Having gained in four (4) of five (5) trading sessions this week, the ASI closed 3.89% higher w/w.
Over the course of the week, MTNN (+1.85% w/w), DANGCEM (5.07% w/w) and ZENITHBANK (+8.15% w/w) were the major drivers of the broader index positive performance offsetting loss in GUINNESS (-8.75% w/w). As a result. the year-to-date (YTD) return rose to 26.83%, while the market capitalization gained N1.33tn w/w to close at N35.39trn.
Friday’s market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 21.04%. A total of 770.80m shares valued at N14.26bn were exchanged in 8,915 deals. UBA (+9.96%) led the volume chart with 111.21m units traded while AIRTELAFRI(+0.00%) led the value chart in deals worth N2.59bn.
Market breadth closed positive at a 2.85-to-1 ratio with advancing issues outnumbering declining ones. GTCO (+10.00%) led thirty-six (36) others on the gainer’s log, while ACADEMY (-9.88%) topped twelve (12) others on the laggard’s table.
On the currency market, the Naira depreciated slightly by 1.3 percent to N777.82/$ against N768.16/$ on Thursday.
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