MTN, other stocks lift market capitalisation by N196bn gain

Renewed demand for MTN Nigeria, alongside Zenith Bank and FBN Holdings, among other leading stocks, on Tuesday, pulled the Nigerian Exchange Ltd.(NGX) market capitalisation up by 0.35 per cent.

Recovering from previous session losses, the market capitalisation, which opened at N55.357 trillion, gained N196 billion or 0.35 per cent, to close at N55.553 trillion.

Consequently, the All-Share Index rose by 0.35 per cent or 346 points to close at 98,225.63, in contrast to 97,879.94 recorded on Monday.

As a result, the Year-To-Date (YTD) return rose to 31.36 per cent.

Market breadth also closed positive with 28 gainers and 18 losers on the floor of the Exchange.

On the gainers’ table, CAP Plc, LearnAfrica, Nigeria Aviation Handling Company and UACN led by 10 per cent each to close at N28.60, N3.30, N36.30 and N14.85 per share, respectively.

Conoil followed closely by 9.96 per cent to close at N99.95 per share.

On the other side, Dangote Sugar led the losers table by 9.95 per cent to close at N38.90, Computer Warehouse Group trailed by 9.85 per cent to close at N5.05 per share.

Vitafoam Nigeria shed 9.81 per cent to close at N17, Honeywell Flour declined by 9.74 per cent to close at N3.15 and UPL lost 9.60 per cent to close at N2.26 per share.

Analysis of the market activities showed trade turnover settled higher relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions up by 193.52 per cent.

A total of 552.21 million shares valued at N14.92 billion were exchanged in 9,350 deals, as against 277.24 million shares valued at N5.08 billion, exchanged in 8,714 deals traded previously.

GTCO led the activity chart in volume and value with 245.46 million shares worth N7.95 billion, FBN Holdings followed by 45.47 million shares vaued at N1.09 billion.

Access Corporation transacted 42.87 million shares valued at N727.96 million, Transnational Corporation sold 36.08 million shares worth N502.35 million and United Bank of Africa(UBA) traded 22.45 million shares worth N537.74 million. (NAN)

By Rukayat Adeyemi