Equity market gains N44bn on half year earnings

Bullish sentiment continued yesterday on the floor of Nigerian Exchange, with the market capitalisation appreciating by N44 billion. The market closed the day on higher traded volume and positive breadth that revealed increased buying interest, especially in the financial service sector and dividend paying stocks.

The expectation of likely having positive corporate earnings as reported in the previous quarter scorecards encouraged more investors to start playing the market ahead of the release of the second quarter financial results.

The result showed that Market Capitalisation of listed equities increased by 0.22 per cent to N20.070 trillion from N20.026 trillion reported the previous day.

The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) All Share Index also appreciated by 83.27 basis points to 38501.31 points from 38418.04 points reported the previous day.

Investors traded 296.098 million shares cost N2.562 billion in 4560 deals against 288.926 million shares cost N2.418 billion in 4540 deals.

An analysis of the transactions for the day showed that Cutix Plc led gainers table during the day, appreciating by 10 per cent to close at N3.63 kobo, JohnHolt followed with a gain of 9.84 per cent to N0.67 kobo, UAC Property gained 9.71 per cent to close at N1.13 kobo, Triple G added 8.33 per cent to close at N0.91 kobo, Wapic Insurance grew by 5.36 per cent to close at N0.59 kobo.