BY BAMIDELE FAMOOFO
Investors in the equities market of Africa’s largest economy got a huge return in terms of capital gain as over N580 billion was carted away from trading on Tuesday.
The local equities extended gains for the fifth consecutive session as the All-Share index gained 1.65 per cent to close at 65,669.29 points.
Heavy gains in Dangote Cement Plc(+9.27%), BUA Cement Plc (+6.59%), and Dangote Sugar Plc (+0.55%) outweighed losses in telecom giant, MTN Nigeria (-0.71%), alongside NESTLE (-0.75%), and Zenith Bank Plc (-2.01%), keeping the market in the positive terrain.
As a result, the ASI’s year-to-date (YTD) return increased to 28.13 per cent, while the market capitalisation gained N580.23 billion to close at N35.76 trillion.
Analysis of the day’s market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 57.28 percent.
A total of 844.72million shares valued at N9.41 billion were exchanged in 8,922 deals. CHAMS (+0.79%) led the volume chart with 91.71 million units while GTCO (-0.28%) led the value chart in deals worth N1.09 billion.
Market breadth closed negative at a 1.43 to-1 ratio with declining issues outnumbering advancing ones. CHAMPION (-9.89%) topped twenty-nine (29) others on the laggard’s table, while TRANSCOHOT (+10.00%) led twenty (20) others on the leader’s log.