NGX extends bullish run, increases by N93.4bn

The Nigerian equities market extended its positive performance on the floor of Nigerian Exchange Ltd., Monday, opening with a gain of N93.43 billion, representing 20 per cent increase over N47.14 recorded last Friday.

Specifically, the market capitalisation gained N50 billion to close at N25.46 trillion from N25.41 trillion achieved on Friday.

Also, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 93.43 points or 20 per cent to close at N47, 233.91 trillion from N47,140.48 trillion recorded on Friday.

The upturn was due to gains recorded in financial institutions stocks which included Zenith Bank Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank Company (GTCo) and United Bank for Africa (UBA) and other stocks including MTN Nigeria and UCAP.

The market closed positive as 31 stocks posted gains while 14 declined.

Guinness recorded the highest gain of N4 to close at N74  from the opening price of N70, representing 5.71 per cent.

UCAP followed with a gain of N1.20 to close at N13.20 from N12 per share, an increase of 10 per cent, while Afripud gained 65 kobo after closing at N7.45 from N6.80 per share, representing 9.56 per cent.

Also, May and Baker rose with a gain of 35 kobo to close at N4.56 from N4.21, representing 8.31 per cent rise, while Champion also increased by 35 kobo to close at N2.23 from N2.05 per share, representing 8.78 per cent increase.

On the other hand, Juli led the losers’ chart, dropping N1.60 to close at N33.50 from N38.61 per share, making a loss of 4.56 per cent.

Dangote Sugar recorded a loss of 30 kobo to close at N18 from N18.30 per share, representing 1.64 per cent loss.

Mutual Benefit Assurance and Custodian Assurance followed with a loss of 20 kobo each to close at N7.25 from N7.45 per share and N7.35 from N7.45 per share, respectively. Both declined by 2.68  per cent each.

Also, Multiverse fell by 17 kobo to close at N3.85 from N4.02 per share, representing a decline of 4.23 per cent.

However, the total volume traded decreased by 3.34 million units to close at 421.46 million from N424.70 million units on Friday.

Also shares traded in total value stood at N4.22 billion compared with N6.52 billion recorded on Friday, exchanged in 5.961 deals.

This was in contrast with 435.79 million shares worth N3.44 billion traded in 6,482 deals on Monday.