“FBNHoldings, Dangote Cement Propel Equity Market Gains by N53bn Over the Weekend”

Olusegun Alebiosu,FBN Holdings MDCEO

The equity market rebounded on Thursday, reversing its previous session’s loss with a gain of N53 billion. This recovery was driven by investor interest in blue-chip stocks, including Dangote Cement, FBN Holdings, Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO), and Fidelity Bank, alongside other advancing equities.

Market capitalisation rose by 0.09%, climbing from N62.257 trillion at the opening to N62.310 trillion at the close of trading. Similarly, the All-Share Index (ASI) gained 87.11 points, or 0.09%, to settle at 102,183.06, up from the 102,095.95 reported on Wednesday. This improvement brought the Year-to-Date (YTD) return to 0.72%.

Despite the gains, market breadth closed negative, with 35 stocks advancing against 26 decliners.
On the losers’ chart, Livestock Feeds led with a 60k decline to close at N5.40 per share. Eunisell followed, losing N1.73 to end at N15.63. Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals and Regal Insurance shed 7k each, closing at N3.12 and 68k per share, respectively, while Honeywell Flour dropped 94k to close at N9.21 per share.

Conversely, Northern Nigerian Flour Mill led the gainers, adding N4.95 to close at N54.45 per share. Dangote Sugar followed with a N3.65 gain, closing at N40.50 per share. Other top performers included John Holt, which gained 83k to close at N9.30, The Initiate Plc, up 25k to N2.80, and Omatek, which added 8k to close at 90k per share.

Trading activity also increased significantly, with transaction values up by 76.82% compared to the previous session. A total of 472.16 million shares worth N16.70 billion were traded in 12,336 deals, surpassing the 435.54 million shares valued at N9.44 billion exchanged in 12,098 deals during the prior session.

Leading the activity chart in both volume and value was GTCO, which traded 65.05 million shares valued at N3.77 billion.

(Reported by Rukayat Adeyemi, culled from NAN)