Investors Pocket N402bn as Nigerian Exchange Limited Rebounds

Investors on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) experienced a positive shift, gaining approximately N402 billion at the close of Thursday’s trading session.

This marked a significant recovery from the previous session’s loss of N139 billion.

The surge in investor confidence and positive market sentiment led to a bullish trend, with notable gains in key stocks.

MTN Nigeria recorded a notable uptick of 4.58%, accompanied by positive movements in Dangote Cement (+2.20%), Zenith Bank (+0.53%), and PZ (+1.35%).

The All-Share Index, reflecting the overall market performance, advanced by 0.99%, reaching 74,502.58 points—a new record high for the index.

The year-to-date gain for the index settled at an impressive 45.37%. Similarly, the market capitalization saw a 0.99% increase, closing at N40.769 trillion, another historic high.

This positive momentum was further underscored by the prevalence of gainers, outnumbering losers with 37 gainers and 27 losers.

Among the notable gainers were Ikeja Hotel, Multiverse, Julius Berger, Industrial & Medical Gases Plc, and McNichols Plc.

Despite the substantial gains, trading activity witnessed a decline, with total traded volume decreasing by 11.17% to 384.58 million units.

The total traded value also saw a significant drop of 56.20% to N5.67 billion, while the total number of deals declined by 6.35% to 8,336.

The sectoral performance remained positive, with gains observed in the Insurance, Consumer Goods, Oil/Gas, and Industrial indexes—registering increases of 2.07%, 0.11%, 0.02%, and 1.10%, respectively.

However, the Banking sector was the sole decliner, experiencing a 0.22% decline.

Jaiz Bank maintained its position as the most traded security by volume for the second consecutive day, with 49.40 million units exchanged in 282 trades.

It was followed by Zenith Bank with 27.94 million units traded in 577 deals, and Access Holdings Plc with 23.42 million units exchanged in 383 deals.

In terms of traded value, Zenith Bank led the pack with N1.06 billion, trailed by MTN Nigeria with N792.51 million, AccessCorp with N539.24 million, United Bank for Africa with N367.411 million, and Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc with N291.16 million.

Looking ahead to the week, analysts anticipate a positive trend as investors engage in profit-taking and bargain-hunting for dividend-paying stocks.

This is expected to be driven by sector rotation and portfolio rebalancing.

The market’s resilience and the rebound in investor confidence suggest a favorable outlook for the Nigerian Exchange Limited.