Nwali Chidozie
Equities on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) started the week on a positive trajectory, as investors pocketed a N60 billion Naira ($39.1 million U.S dollar) gain by the close of trading on Monday, reversing the previous week’s losses. “The positive momentum was driven by significant gains in the insurance sector” and a broad-based positive market sentiment. NGX noted in a statement released on Tuesday.
Data from the NGX shows the All-Share Index (ASI) climbed by 94.27 points, or 0.07%, to close at 144,722.47. This pushed the market capitalization up to N91.6 trillion ($59.7 billion) from N91.54 trillion ($59.6 billion) recorded last week Friday.
Despite this gain, the market still registered a one-week loss of 0.79%, though it maintained a robust four-week gain of 9.78% and an impressive year-to-date gain of 40.61%.
Trading activity saw a total of 1.05 billion shares, valued at N15.05 billion ($9.8 million), exchanged in 38,137 deals. While the volume of shares traded declined by 24% compared to the previous session, the turnover and the number of deals saw improvements of 8% and 19%, respectively.
The insurance sector was the star performer of the day, with the NGX Insurance Index soaring by 5.26%, contributing to its remarkable year-to-date gain of 98.41%. Other sectoral indices had mixed results.
Universal Insurance Company was the most actively traded stock by volume, with 202.2 million shares changing hands. It was followed by Linkage Assurance (77.9 million shares), Lasaco Assurance (66.4 million shares), and Mutual Benefits Assurance (57.8 million shares).
In terms of value, GTCO led the charts with trades worth N1.05 billion ($684,300). Zenith Bank followed with N987.76 million ($644,100), Aradel Holdings with N945.58 million ($616,800), AccessCorp with N829.71 million ($541,000), and UBA with N779.15 million ($508,000).
