NGX Market Capitalisation Shoots up as Investors Rack in N902 Billion Gain

Investors at the NGX opened the first trading day of February on a positive note as market capitalisation gained N902 billion at the close of Thursday's trading session. This was after the market went on 2-day bearish sessions, following sell-offs.

The All-Share Index and market capitalisation increased by 1.63% to close at 102,802.25 points. In contrast, market capitalisation closed at N56.26 trillion, heading towards 60 trillion following smooth trading in the coming days. The NGX year-to-date return of the market improved to 37.48%.

Market sentiment was positive, leading to 53 gainers and 19 losers. The banking sector led the gainers with a 7.82% increase, fuelled by buying interest in the top banks, such as Zenith Bank, Access Holdings, UBA, GTCO, and Fidelity.

The Consumer Goods sector followed suit with a substantial increase of 4.37%, mainly driven by Dangote Sugar, Honeywell Flour Mill Cadburt and BUA Foods.

Top Gainers: Caverton, Chams, Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc, and VeristasKap gained 10%, while Nascon Allied Industries finished 9.98%.

Top Losers: DEAPCAP led the losing chart with 9.88%, followed by Computer Warehouse Group, which declined by 9.87% and RT BRISCOE with a 9.86% decline.

The Insurance, Oil/Gas, and Industrial indexes posted gains of 2.18%, 0.02% and 0.35%, respectively. Total deals and value declined by 10.06% and 45.96% to 12,851 trades and N12.16bn, respectively. The total traded volume for the day increased by 14.93% to 861.01 million units.

At the end of the trading session, Universal Insurance was the most traded security in terms of volume, with 113.76 million units changing hands in 110 deals, while Zenith Bank led in traded value at N2.76bn.

Back Story on Last Month’s Losses Recorded at the NGX

The Nigerian Stock Exchange halted its 13-day bullish trend with an N856 billion loss following the decline of Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc and 60 others. That same day, the NGX All Share Index declined by 1,564.52 points, which signifies a drop of 1.49%, to close at 103,110.15 points. Market capitalisation closed at N56.426 trillion after losing N856 billion.

A day later, investors at the Nigerian Exchange Limited closed January with the highest loss recorded for the year. Market capitalisation lost N1.07 trillion on Wednesday, January 31, 2024. This is the third loss the market recorded in January, following sell-offs.

The first loss last month was recorded on January 10 as the NGX market capitalisation loss of N638bn to close at N44.885tn. This development comes a day after the market capitalisation crossed the N45 trillion milestone.

The NGX All-Share Index on that trading day was above 80,000 points even after losing 1,167.46 points or 1.40%, to close at 82,024.38 at the close of Wednesday's trading session.