The domestic equities market on Thursday closed the last trading day in November 2023 positive amid gaining N44 billion, buoyed by a price uptick in Airtel Africa Plc and 24 others.
The Nigerian Exchange Limited All-Share Index (NGX ASI) gained 81.91 basis points or 0.11 percent to close at 71,365.25 basis points. Also, market capitalisation rose by N44 billion to close at N39.052 trillion.
Accordingly, the equities market Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns advanced to +3.1 percent and +39.3 percent, respectively.
Sectoral performance was broadly negative, as the NGX Insurance (-0.8 percent), NGX Banking (-0.4 percent), NGX Consumer Goods (-0.3 percent), and NGX Oil & Gas (-0.1 percent) indices printed losses, while the NGX Industrial Goods (+0.1 percent) index advanced.
The upturn was driven by price appreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks amongst which are Airtel Africa, Northern Nigeria Flour Mills (NNFM), Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), MeCure Industries and Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO).
Investor sentiment, as measured by market breadth, closed negative as 24 stocks advanced, while 32 declined. NNFM emerged as the highest price gainer of 10 percent to close at N35.20 per share. Thomas Wyatt Nigeria followed with a gain of 9.62 percent to close at N2.28, while MeCure Industries advanced by 9.09 percent to close at N12.00 per share.
Champion Breweries rose by 7.69 percent to close at N3.50, while ETI appreciated by 6.25 percent to close at N17.00 per share. On the other side, Secure Electronic Technology led others on the losers’ chart with 9.72 percent to close at 65 kobo, per share. Unity Bank followed with a decline of 9.68 percent to close at N1.40, while Tantalizers shed 9.43 percent to close at 48 kobo, per share.
DAAR Communications depreciated by 9.38 percent to close at 29 kobo, while Deap Capital Management & Trust declined by 9.23 percent to close at 59 kobo, per share.
The total volume of trade increased by 49.77 percent to 540.086 million units, valued at N10.243 billion, and exchanged in 6,516 deals. Transactions in shares of GTCO led the activity with 67.23 million shares worth N2.603 billion. Universal Insurance followed with an account of 56.747 million shares valued at N13.662 million, while Consolidated Hallmark Holdings traded 46.100 million shares valued at N64.328 million.
Transnational Corporation (Transcorp) traded 42.756 million shares worth N294.338 million, while FBN Holdings (FBNH) traded 36.028 million shares worth N787.474 million.
On market performance, analysts at Afrinvest Limited stated that “we expect the market to sustain positive performance in tomorrow’s trading session due to improved investor sentiment.”
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