Equity Investors Reap N1.86tn as Optimism Opens Week

• ASI Jumps 1.74% to Historic N101tn

BY BONNY AMADI

Equity investors trading on the NGX Exchange opened the first full week of the year on Monday, with a harvest of earnings, reaping N1.86trillion, reflecting earning potentials inherent in the equities market.

The NGX Equities market ushered in the new week with sustained positive momentum, with the All-Share Index (ASI) climbing 1.74 per cent to a historic high of 159,218.22 points.

Market capitalization surged by N1.87 trillion, surpassing the N100 trillion milestone to reach N101.52 trillion, supported by the additional listing of 2.575 billion First Bank shares. Investor sentiment remained robust at 10.42x, as 73 advancing stocks significantly outnumbered 7 decliners, led by CADBURY, CHAMPION, FIDSON, PZ, and WAPIC, while JULI, IKEJAHOTEL, SUNUASSUR, SOVRENINS, and BERGER recorded the steepest losses.

Sectoral performance was broadly positive, with Insurance soaring 4.97%, Banking up 4.71%, Oil & Gas rising 2.75%, Consumer Goods gaining 2.06%, Commodities climbing 1.59%, and Industrial stocks advancing 0.95%.

Trading activity presented a mixed picture: the number of deals and volume increased by 40.72% and 58.12% to 56,632 trades and 695.65 million units, respectively, while overall transaction value fell 25.65% to N18.57 billion, reflecting selective buying in high-volume stocks.

Top five gainers

REGALINS opened the week as the best gainer with N0.11 or 10 per cent to end the day at N1.21 Other top five gainers, grew by ten per cent, FIDSON by N5.50 to close at N60.50, MAYBAKER grew by N1.90 to close at N20.90, PZ appreciated by N4.50 to N49.50, while WAPIC advanced by N0.35 to end the top five gainers group at N3.85 per share.

Worst five losers

JULI led the losers with N0.80 or 9.93 per cent dip to close at N7.26, followed by IKEJAHOTEL with N4.45 or 9.91 per cent decline to close at N40.45, while SUNUASSUR closed third in the group at N5.25 having weakened by N0.25 or 4.55 per cent.

SOVRENINS lost N0.09 or 2.36 per cent of its value to close at N3.72, while BERGER ended the worst five loser stocks group at N47.00 per share, following decline by N1.00 or 2.08 per cent.

Top five trades

TANTALIZER led the day as the highest traded stock with total volume of 71,751,151.00 million shares worth N181,807,113.17 million, followed by ZENITHBANK with 53,391,499.00 million shares valued N3,507,609,931.95 billion, while LINKASSURE closed third in the group with 51,674,608.00 million shares worth N93,061,190.46 million.

CHAMS polled a total of 34,971,639.00 million shares worth N138, 488,785.35 million, while ACCESSCORP closed the top five active stocks group with 34,722,964.00 million shares worth N846, 499,974.14 million.