Stock market opens week bearish as ASI dips by 0.04%

By Chukwuma Umeorah

The local equities market started the trading week on a subdued note as the All-Share Index (ASI) edged lower by 0.04 per cent to close at 105,891.33 points from an opening value of 105,933.03 points bringing the year-to-date gain to 2.88 per cent.

Despite the decline in the benchmark index, market capitalization rose by 0.73 per cent to N66.07 trillion, reflecting a N477 billion increase, largely attributed to the listing of 9.67 billion ordinary shares by Zenith Bank.

Trading activity showed mixed trends, with the total number of deals surging by 41.48 per cent to 17,843, while trade volume also increased by 21.15 per cent to 567.29 million shares. However, market turnover by value declined by 20.91 per cent to N10.41 billion. Investor sentiment remained largely positive, as 44 stocks gained compared to 25 decliners. BETAGLAS, STANBIC, SMURFIT led the gainers posting double digit growth closing at N95.15 per share, N68.20 per share and N0.22 per share respectively. Honyflour, and Eterna also gained 9.98 per cent and 9.96 per cent closing at N10.47 per share and N40.30 per share respectively.

On the flip side, Intenegins, RT Briscoe, JBerger as the value 9f their stocks shed 10.00 per cent, 9.63 per cent and 8.44 per cent to close at N2.25, N2.44 and N128.00 pee share.

Across sectoral indices, the Insurance Index emerged as the best performer, rising 1.53 per cent followed by Consumer Goods (+0.10 per cent), Oil & Gas (+0.09 per cent), Industrial Goods (+0.08 per cent), and Commodities (+0.40 per cent).

Meanwhile, the Banking Index fell by 0.95 per cent, marking the only sectoral loss for the day.