Equities market gains N25bn to begin June on positive note

Investors at the equities market of the Nigerian Stock Exchange gained N25billion in first trading day of June over share price appreciation in blue-chip companies on bourse.

The market capitalisation which opened the month at N13.168 trillion inched higher by N25 billion or 0.19 per cent to close at N13.193 trillion.

Also, the NSE All-Share Index rose by 48.33 points or 0.19 per cent to close at 25,316.15 basis points compared with 25,267.82 basis points it closed on Friday.

As a result, Year-to-Date losses moderated to -5.7 per cent.

Sectoral performance was generally positive, as gains in the Banking Index that gained 1.3 per cent, Consumer Goods Index rose by 1.1 per cent and Industrial Goods Index appreciated by 0.5per cent to outweighed the 0.9 per cent decline in the Insurance index.

The uptrend was impacted by gains recorded in large and medium capitalised stocks, amongst which are: Dangote Sugar, Nigerian Breweries, Guaranty Trust Bank, Vitafoam Nigeria and BUA Cement.

The market closed positively with 28 gainers against 10 losers.

Japaul Oil & Maritime Services and Nigerian Aviation Handling Company led the gainers’ chart in percentage terms, improving by 10 per cent each, to close at 22k and N2.75, respectively.

Dangote Sugar Refinery followed with 9.69 per cent to close at N14.15, per share.

Cornerstone Insurance grew by 9.09 per cent to close at 60k, while Champion Breweries appreciated by 8.79 per cent to close at 99k per share.

On the other hand, Fidson Healthcare led the losers’ chart in percentage terms with a loss of 9.71 per cent, to close at N3.07, per share.

Stanbic IBTC Holdings followed with 9.22 per cent to close at N32.50, while AXA Mansard declined by 8.87 per cent to close at N1.85, per share.

Afromedia dipped 7.69 per cent to close at 24k, while Flour Mills Nigeria and Honeywell Flour Mill shed 4.76 per cent each to close at N20 and N1 per share, respectively.

However, the total volume of shares traded dropped by 22.21 per cent with an exchange of 253.31 million shares worth N2.65 billion in 4,775 deals.

This was against a total of 325.61 million shares valued N4.48 billion, achieved in 5,647 deals on Friday.

Transactions in the shares of FBN Holdings topped the activity chart with 41.01 million shares valued N221.78 million.

Guaranty Trust Bank followed with 36.17 million shares worth N887.46 million, while Japaul Oil & Maritime Services sold 25.44 million shares valued N5.54 million.

Zenith Bank accounted for 21.58 million shares worth N369.89 million, while Regency Alliance Insurance transacted 20.47 million shares worth N4.11 million.