On Thursday, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) witnessed a modest uptick in its principal indicators, with the NGX All-Share Index (ASI) climbing by 48 points to close at 98,169.30.
Market capitalization experienced a slight increase of 0.05%, ending the day at N55.52 trillion, up from N55.49 trillion at the previous close, reflecting a gain of around N27 billion.
Among the advancing stocks, TRANSCOHOT led the pack as the top earner out of 16 gainers, while SOVRENINS recorded a 10% decline, placing it at the bottom of the list of 24 decliners.
ZENITHBANK emerged as a focal point in the day’s trading, attracting significant trading volume and value. The total number of trades for the day settled at 7,417, marking a reduction from the previous session’s 7,907 transactions.
Trading volumes in the market took a downturn, registering a 24.9% fall to 297.2 million shares compared to the 395.75 million from the last session. Leading the volume chart was ZENITHBANK with 48.49 million shares, with ACCESSCORP not far behind at 39.88 million shares. Other significant trading volumes were noted by TRANSCORP at 28.47 million shares, UBA with 22.94 million, and NB rounding out the top five with 20.30 million shares.
In parallel, the total trade value also witnessed a 31.95% reduction, settling at N6.52 billion, a notable decrease from the previous N9.58 billion, which translates to a N3.06 billion shortfall. ZENITHBANK dominated the trade value, securing N1.77 billion, followed by MTNN at N1.04 billion. Other noteworthy trade values were posted by ACCESSCORP at N639.98 million, NB at N560.16 million, and UBA at N523.55 million.
The SWOOT group’s financial outcomes were varied, with TRANSCOHOT reversing its previous day’s 10% loss by achieving a notable 9.75% increase in share price. MTN Nigeria saw a slight rise of 0.2%. In contrast, the banking sector experienced a downturn, with Zenith Bank and GTCO’s market values dipping by 0.55% and 0.31%, respectively.
In the face of market volatility, several firms including AIRTELAFRICA, BUACEMENT, BUAFOODS, DANGCEMENT, GEREGU, SEPLAT, and TRANSPOWER successfully kept their stock prices stable, indicating their resilience.
Focusing on the banking sector, UBA stood out with a 0.44% uptick in share price, while its counterparts such as FBN Holdings, Zenith Bank, Access Holdings, and GTCO witnessed declines of 6.33%, 0.55%, 0.31%, and 0.14% respectively.