Access, Zenith, UBA drive market growth as investors gain N214bn

Investors in Nigeria’s equities market, yesterday, saw the value of their investments appreciated by N214.80 billion as the NGX All-Share Index advanced by 0.55%, closing at 72,299.79 basis points, compared to the previous day’s gain of 0.33%, which closed at 71,907.26 basis points.

Buying interest in the shares of tier-1 banks saw the ASI crossed the 72,000 mark for the first time as Access Holdings Plc (ACCESSCORP) gained 8.09% while UBA and Zenith Bank recorded 3.45% and 2.54% gain respectively.

The NGX ASI year-to-date return was at 41.07% while the total volume traded advanced by 35.56% to close at N433.18m, valued at N8.08bn and traded in 6,650 deals.

ACCESSCORP was the most traded stock by volume with N60.18m, while GTCO was the most traded stock by value with N1.96bn units traded.

At the close of trading, the market recorded 34 gainers, 15 losers, and 67 unchanged. Top 3 gainers were SCOA Nigeria (9.88%), Infinity Trust Mortgage Bank (9.86%) and Access Holdings (8.09%) while the top 3 losers were University Press  (-9.82%), Sunu Assurance (-9.38%), and Eterna (-8.03%).

Analysts at Parthian Securities Research said they expect the bullish sentiment to persist into today’s trading session in the absence of any negative catalyst.