The Nigerian equities market extended its bullish run yesterday, with market capitalisation surging to a record N160.60 trillion, following the listing of 8.09 billion new ordinary shares of Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX).
The development pushed total market value higher by 0.65 per cent, significantly outperforming the 0.29 per cent gain recorded by the NGX All-Share Index, which closed at 247,699.78 points.
The latest advance lifted the market’s year-to-date return to 59.18 per cent, underscoring the strength of the equities rally despite increasingly weak breadth.
The sharp rise in market capitalisation was largely driven by the additional Dangote Sugar shares admitted to trading, rather than a broad-based appreciation in equity prices.
Monday’s trading session revealed a widening disconnect between the headline index and underlying investor sentiment. Forty-three stocks declined against only 12 gainers, producing a weak market breadth of 0.3x.
The biggest losers were led by Caverton Offshore Support Group, Omatek Ventures, Consolidated Hallmark Insurance, Sunu Assurances Nigeria and Daar Communications, while Zichis Agro-Allied , Aradel Holdings, Nascent Technologies, International Breweries and MTN Nigeria recorded the strongest gains.
Sectoral performance was equally mixed, with gains concentrated in selected sectors. The Oil and Gas Index led the advance, rising 5.90 per cent, followed by the Commodity Index, which gained 4.04 per cent, while the Consumer Goods Index rose 0.79 per cent.
These gains offset declines across the Insurance, Banking and Industrial Goods sectors.
Trading activity, however, weakened considerably. Total volume traded fell by 81.81 per cent to 407.85 million shares, while market turnover dropped 62.88 per cent to N27.25…
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Read Full Article by Kehinde Akinseinde-Jayeoba at tribuneonlineng.com
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