BY BAMIDELE FAMOOFO
Today, Nigerian equities extended gains for the fourth consecutive session as the All-Share index gained 0.73 percent to close at 44,788.14 points.
Turnover in the market settled higher relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions up by 25.84 percent, driven largely by a deal of N1.01 billion crossed by investors on the shares of Airtel Africa Plc.
A total of 159.21m shares valued at N2.73billion were exchanged in 3,385 deals on Tuesday, with Mutual Benefits Plc (+0.00%) leading the volume chart with 47.43million units while AIRTELAFRI (+0.00%) led the value chart.
Renewed appetite for BUA Cement Plc whose share price appreciated by 10 percent, outweighing losses in telco giant, MTNN (-0.25%) as well as Tier-1 banking names, ZENITHBANK (-1.25%), GTCO (-0.54%) and FBNH (-4.17%) kept the market in the positive terrain. As a result, the ASI’s year-to-date (YTD) return increased to 4.85 percent, while the market capitalization gained N178.40 billion to close at N24.39 trillion.
Market breadth closed negative at a 2.25-to-1 ratio with declining issues outnumbering advancing ones. MULTIVERSE (-8.50%) topped seventeen (17) others on the laggard’s table, while BUACEMENT (+10.00%) led seven (7) others on the leader’s log.
