By Samuel Bankole
The Nigerian stock market surged to its highest level since July 2008 on Tuesday, with the market capitalization crossing the N31 trillion psychological level.
Also, the market index rose 3.99 percent to close at 58,163.59 points on fresh optimism by investors, traders said.
The market capitalization of equities listed on the NGX increased to N31.670 trillion from N30.455 trillion at the previous close.
The total volume traded closed with an exchange of 1,186.494 million units valued at 19.23 billion traded in 10,369 deals.
The market breadth was positive, with 61 gainers as against 13 losers.
The NGX 30 Index increased by 4.10 percent to close at 2,104.96 points as against 2,022.00 points at the previous close.
Market turnover closed with a traded volume of 877.14 million units. Zenith, Nascon, Guaranty, and Access were the key gainers, while there were no losers.
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The positive trend was driven by 10 percent gains each in Zenith Bank, Nascon, GTCO, and Access Corporation, while Ecobank posted 9.92 percent.
Analysts attributed the bullish trading on the stock of the banking sector to the removal of the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, which raises the hope of monetary policy reform by the new government.
Also, the naira appreciated on the official market, firming by 0.18 percent against the United States dollar.
The naira appreciated by 0.18 percent as the dollar was quoted at N471.67 as against the last close of N472.50.
Traders said most participants maintained bids between 460.00 and 477.00 per dollar.
Meanwhile, on the money market, the cost of borrowing on the interbank market rose by 0.20 percent.
The overnight (O/N) rate increased by 0.20 percent to close at 12.30 percent as against the last close of 12.10 percent, while the open repo (OPR) rate also increased by 0.20 percent to close at 11.90 percent compared to 11.70 percent on the previous day.
FMDQ Exchange approved the quotation of Mixta Real Estate PLC’s 0.87 billion series 25 and 0.42 billion series 26 commercial papers under the company’s 25.00 billion commercial paper issuance program on its platform.
FMDQ Exchange approved the quotation of CardinalStone Partners Limited’s 2.10 billion series 1 and 3.90 billion series 2 commercial papers under the company’s 20.00 billion commercial paper issuance program on its platform.
(omayowa@globalfinancialdigest.com; Newsroom: +234 8033 964 138)
