Market opens Q2 on expectant note as earnings continue

Hope of reaping from corporate action characterized market sentiments as second quarter trading commenced on Monday, even as the All Share-Index declined 0.95 per cent.
Cross section of investors have expressed confidence of reaping more from their investments in the market through dividend payment, more than what accrued to them in the first quarter.

Meanwhile, the All Share Index (ASI) and market capitalization closed at 25,273.03 points and N8.745 trillion against last Friday’s closing figures of 25,516.34 points and N8.829 trillion respectively, to bring the year to date returns to -6 percent.

Equities investors thus began the week and first trading day in the month of April with a loss of N84.2 billion after trading in 2,634 deals, a total of 97.7 million shares valued at N682.8 million. This was in sharp contrast to 593.9 million shares valued at N94.3 billion and traded in 3,159 deals in previous session

The day’s transaction showed that the volume and value traded on Monday decreased 84 percent and 3672 percent respectively, while Market breadth stayed positive with 28 gainers to 7 losers.

UACN emerged the day’s highest gainer with an increase of 10.23 percent to close at N14.33 per share, Nascon Allied Industries was next with an increase of 10.14 percent to close at N7.82 per share and Dangote Sugar appreciated 9.82 percent to close at N7.16 per share.

Leading the day’s losing stocks were Eterna Oil with a depreciation of 4.72 percent to close at N3.23 per share, Total dropped 3.70 percent to close at N260, Guaranty shed 2.37 percent to close at N24.31 per share.

Fidelity bank traded the highest number of shares accounting for 26.7 million shares worth N21.3 billion, It was followed by Diamond Bank that exchanged 9.7 million shares worth N8.2 million while UBA traded 9.3 million shares worth approximately N48 million.