Investments in stock market soared to new heights yesterday as more money are diverted from money market into the stocks bringing investors’ gains to over N1.07 trillion in two days of trading this week.
The bears have continued to strengthen its holds on the equities market following the fallout of reduction in interest rate in the money market by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, previous week, and buy pressure on big capitalised stocks.
Consequently, the market soared by 4.9 per cent,
while investors gained N708 billion at the end of the day’s transactions yesterday. Earlier on Monday market gained N299 billion, bringing the total gains in the two days to N1.07 trillion, the biggest so far since this year.
Specifically, the benchmark all Share Index (ASI) rose to 28,909.37 points from 27,554.49 points propelled by gains in Dangote Cement Plc (9.9%) and MTN Nigeria Communication Plc, which advanced by 5.7 percent. This resulted in increase in the , Month-to-Date (M/D) and Year-to-Date (Y/D) gains to 7.7 percent respectively.
The market capitalisation of all listed equities advanced by the same margin, rising to N15.110 trillion from N14.402 trillion on Monday.
Further analysis of the day’s trading showed that performance across sectors was also positive with the banking sector leading the pack with 7.5 percent increase, followed by the industrial goods sector with 5.6 percent increase.
The consumer goods, oil and gas and the insurance sectors rose by three percent, 1.2 per cent and 0.3 per cent respectively.
The total volume of trades increased by 24.1 per cent to 749.47 million units, valued at N9.50 billion and exchanged in 8,075 deals. Zenith Bank Plc emerged the most traded stock by volume and value at 135.70 million units and N2.77 billion, respectively.