The rally continued in yesterday’s trading session as equities market capitalisation valued at N18.468 trillion on the back of gains in high capitalised stocks like Dangote Cement, BUA Cement and Airtel Africa Plc.
The All Share Index (ASI) increased by 2,074.10 absolute points, representing a growth of 6.23 per cent to close at 35,342.46 points. Similarly, the market capitalisation gained N1.084 trillion to close at N18.468 trillion.
The upturn was impacted by gains recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Nestle Nigeria, Airtel Africa, Dangote Cement, Presco and Nigerian Breweries.
Capital market analysts noted that the equities market continued to enjoy the patronage of investors especially from pension funds, following the collapse in stop rates to below 0.5 per cent for all maturities at the primary market auction.
Meanwhile, the bullish momentum on the domestic bourse reached a new high yesterday, as the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) resolved to trigger the “Circuit Breaker” clause for the first time since developed to accommodate the record-breaking daily-single-biggest rise of 6.23 per cent in the ASI.
The Circuit Breaker clause introduced by the NSE in 2016 was developed to halt trading activities for 30 minutes to enable the operator to establish market fairness or otherwise, once the ASI increase/decrease reached a threshold of five per cent.
Market breath closed positive, recording 65 gainers and eight losers. C&I Leasing, Cadbury Nigeria, Cutix, Julius Berger, Northern Nigeria Flour Mills (NNFM), Presco, Sterling Bank, BUA Cement and Airtel Africa recorded the highest price gain of 10 per cent each, to close at N4.51, N11.00, N2.09, N19.25, N7.70, N79.75, N2.42, N51.15 and N451.20, respectively, per share.
Zenith Bank followed with a gain 9.96 per cent to close at N28.15, while Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals went up by 9.92 per cent to close at N2.66, per share.
On the other hand, Global Spectrum Energy Services led the losers’ chart by 9.89 per cent, to close at N4.19, per share. Eterna followed with a decline of 9.86 per cent to close at N4.57, while May and Baker Nigeria depreciated by 9.72 per cent to close at N3.25, per share.
Morison Industries shed 9.26 per cent to close at 49 kobo, while Regency Alliance Insurance and Union Diagnostic & Clinical Services depreciated by 7.69 per cent each, to close at 24 kobo, each, per share.
Also, the total volume traded increased by 39.044 per cent to 1.193 billion shares, worth N17.396 billion, and traded in 10,704 deals. Transactions in the shares of Zenith Bank topped the activity chart with 161.383 million shares valued at N4.463 million. FBN Holdings followed with 121.495 million shares worth N1.007 billion, while Access Bank traded 100.848 million shares valued at N992.773 million.
United Bank for Africa (UBA) traded 80.454 million shares valued at N770.427 million, while Fidelity Bank transacted 79.500 million shares worth N239.481 million.