Stock Market Expands as Dangote Cement Rallies

The Nigeria equities market traded marginally higher, as the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) All-share index (ASI) notched higher by 4 basis points gain to close at 55,822.14 points, supported by buying interest in Dangote Cement shares.

Consequently, equities market capitalisation inched higher following 1.1% share appreciation in Ticker: DANGCEM and other mid-cap companies’ stocks. The cement company announced its got approval to buy back its share, spurring positive sentiments.

According to data from the domestic bourse, equities investors gained N12 billion in value or 0.04 per cent, as market capitalisation went up to N30.409 trillion compared with N30.397 trillion on Wednesday.

The upturn was impacted by gains recorded in stocks like Transcorp, Nigerian Breweries, and Royal Exchange, among others.

Market breadth measured by market sentiment was negative as 19 stocks declined, while 12 appreciated. Transcorp recorded the highest price gain of 8.66 per cent to close at N1.38 per share.

Royal Exchange followed with a gain 5.63 per cent to close at 75k, while Champion rose by 4.6 per cent to close at N5 per share.

Living Trust Mortgage Bank went up by 4.21 per cent to close at N2.97, while Cham appreciated by four per cent to close at 26k per share.

On the other hand, NCR and Conoil led the losers’ chart by 9.93 per cent each to close at N2.63 and N42.20 per share respectively.

Universal Press followed with a decline of nine per cent to close at N1.82 per share. Prestige Assurance lost 8.89 per cent to close at 41k, while Ardova shed 8.33 per cent to close at N15.95 per share.

The total volume traded improved by 104 per cent to 311.48 million units, valued at N3.09 billion, and exchanged in 3,627 deals.

Transactions in the shares of Transcorp topped the activity chart with 179.84 million shares valued at N239.24 billion. Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO) followed with 14.4 million shares worth N1.1 billion, while Zenith Bank traded 18.49 million shares valued at N489.37 million.

Stanbic Bank traded 7.95 million shares valued at N317.98 million, while Sterling Bank transacted 6.73 million shares worth N10.1 million. On sectors, the Oil & Gas (-2.0%), and Insurance (-0.5%) indices printed losses, while the Industrial Goods (+0.5%) index advanced.

On the other hand, the Banking and Consumer Goods indices closed flat. Accordingly, the Year-to-Date return was flat at +8.9%. # Stock Market Expands as Dangote Cement Rallies.