The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) witnessed a significant milestone on Friday as its total market capitalisation crossed the ₦89 trillion threshold. This was spurred by an increase of ₦948 billion in equity portfolio value, thanks to a robust market rally and a new listing by Seplat Energy.
The bourse maintained its bullish trajectory, posting yet another positive trading week. The All-Share Index advanced by 1.00%, gaining 1,399.53 points to end at a historic high of 141,263.05 points.
Market capitalisation surged by 1.07% to close at ₦89.37 trillion. Analysts attributed a portion of this growth to the listing of 11.5 million ordinary shares from Seplat Energy as part of an employee share-based plan, which impacted the index-to-capitalisation correlation.
Analysts said strategic buying of fundamentally strong stocks helped push performance indicators upward. Companies such as UAC of Nigeria, BUACEMENT, BUAFOODS, BETAGLAS, and others led the gains.
Despite the upbeat numbers, market turnover saw a decline. Total trade volume fell by 1.51%, and trade value dipped by 18.22%. According to Atlass Portfolio Limited, about 1.08 billion shares worth ₦26.85 billion were exchanged in 34,488 transactions.
In terms of trade volume, FCMB took the lead with 25.70% of total trades, followed by FIDELITYBK, STERLINGNG, UNIVINSURE, and VERITASKAP. Meanwhile, ARADEL was the top stock by trade value, accounting for 12.18% of total trade value.
UACN topped the gainers’ chart with a 9.96% increase. Other strong performers included BUACEMENT (+9.63%), VERITASKAP (+9.45%), BETAGLAS (+9.22%), LEGENDINT (+8.84%), and WEMABANK (+8.64%).
On the flip side, 35 stocks recorded losses. CHAMPION, DANGSUGAR, and OANDO each declined by 10%. Others like SOVRENINS (-9.52%), STERLINGNG (-7.14%), and TRANSCORP (-5.66%) also ended in the red.
Despite the mixed performance, sectoral indices showed overall strength. The industrial sector advanced by 3.49%, followed by consumer goods (+1.61%) and banking (+0.52%). However, the Oil & Gas and Insurance sectors slipped by 1.73% and 0.29%, respectively.
