…As NASD OTC Exchange Breaks Six-Sessions Winning Streak
The Nigerian Exchange trading session today was bullish driven by strong gains in ARADEL, alongside positive price appreciation across key banking and consumer goods stocks.
Available data provided by the Nigerian Exchange Group on the local bourse’s performance indicated that at the close of the trading session, the market breadth remained positive at 1.36x, with 45 gainers outweighing 33 decliners, reflecting sustained selective buying interest across the market.
As a result of the boost in the indices, the market capitalisation appreciated by 0.95% to N161.77 trillion, representing a gain of approximately N1.52 trillion in investor wealth.
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According to the data, the difference between the NGXASI’s percentage gain and the increase in market capitalisation was attributable to the listing of 12.97 billion ordinary shares arising from Fidelity Bank Plc’s private placement exercise.
As expecting, trading activity on the equities market remarkably strengthened during the session, as total volume traded rose by 48.59% to 2.25 billion units, reflecting heightened investor participation and increased positioning activities. This is even as the total value traded increased by 43.11% to N100.32 billion, indicating greater exposure to high-value transactions and institutional flows.
Despite the bullish momentum of the trading session, the data showed that the number of deals declined by 10.25% to 85,343 trades, suggesting that the session was largely driven by block trades and large-volume transactions.
Also worthy of note is that the market recorded several off-market transactions during the session. For instance, while C&I Leasing Plc saw 151.15 million units executed in a single off-market deal, 200.00 million units of UBA Plc were exchanged across five off-market deals, just as 429.66 million units of CWG Plc were executed in one off-market transaction, highlighting strong institutional activity in the market during the day’s trading session.
Similarly, the trading data reflected that the local bourse’s sectoral performance closed largely positive, with the Oil & Gas Index emerging as the best-performing sector after gaining 3.40%, driven primarily by renewed buying interest in ARADEL. The Banking Index followed with 1.87% growth, driven by gains in UBA, and ZENITHBANK. Also, the Consumer Goods Index appreciated by 1.71%, following strong buying interest in NB, PZ, and CHAMPION.
However, the data showed that the Industrial Goods Index marginally declined by 0.49% owing to losses in BUACEMENT and WAPCO, while the Insurance Index shed 1.40% following profit-taking activities in AIICO.
Meanwhile, at the NASD OTC Exchange, the market broke its six-session winning streak, as the NASD Securities Index (NSI) declined by 1.10% to close at 4,156.5 points, although the market maintained a strong year-to-date return of 17.29%.
Trading activity strengthened considerably during the session, with total volume traded surging by 1,041.62% to 2.70 million units, while total value traded rose by 294.64% to NGN 65.17 million, indicating larger transaction sizes and heightened activity across the OTC market. Furthermore, the number of deals increased by 55.00% to 31 trades, reflecting stronger participation relative to the previous session.
