Business
Nigerian equity market extends rally
By FELIX OLOYEDE
The positive run of the Nigerian equity market continued for the second consecutive day on Tuesday, driven by investors’ buying interest in Dangote Cement, Mansard and NASCON.
The All-Share Index (ASI) expands by 145.17 absolute points, representing an increase of 0.36% to close at 40,295.95 points, market capitalisation advanced by ₦75.9billion to settle at ₦21.1tn as the year-to-date return improved to 0.1%.
NASCON, OMATEK and NIGERINS topped 23 stocks other advancers, while OANDO , UAC-PROP and DEAPCAP led 17 other laggards.
The volume and value stocks traded surged 247.5% and 220.1% respectively to 1.2billion units and ₦8.0billion.
The most traded stocks by volume were UPDCREIT (755.0m units), MANSARD (49.5m units) and TRANSCORP (44.3m units) while UPDCREIT (₦4.2bn), MTNN (₦679.1m) and ZENITH (₦425.8m) topped by value.
The Insurance index led the gainers, advancing 3.6% due to price uptick in MANSARD (+9.6%), AIICO (+2.7%) and MBENEFIT (+10.0%).
The Industrial and Consumer Goods sectors were up 1.0% and 0.4% respectively due to buying interest in DANGCEM (+2.2%), NASCON (+10.0%) and DANGSUGAR (+1.6%).
On the other hand, the Banking index declined the most, dipping 0.6% due to price weakness in GUARANTY (-1.1%) and UBA (-1.1%).
Also, the AFR-ICT and Oil & Gas indices shed 0.05% apiece on the back of price declines in MTNN (-0.1%) and OANDO (-5.4%).