Equities market adds N677bn in five days

The equities market of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) added N677 billion in five days to close at N9.75 trillion on Friday.
The market capitalization increased by 7.5 per cent from N9.069 trillion the market opened for trading in the week.
The All-Share Index also increased by 7.46 per cent or 1956.83 basis points from 26,235.63 basis points it opened this week to 28,192.46 basis points on Friday.
The gain impacted positively on the equities market year-till-date performance as it moved to 4.90 per cent, the best performance in recent months.
Analysts attributed the stability in foreign exchange market with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) new special foreign exchange window dedicated to investors, exporters and end users,
Similarly, all other Indices finished higher including NSE Banking Index, Oil/Gas Index among others, during the week with the exception the NSE ASeM Index that closed flat.
A turnover of 3.255 billion shares worth N28.738 billion in 25,370 deals were traded in the week by investors on the floor of the Exchange in contrast to a total of 1.154 billion shares valued at N10.439 billion that exchanged hands last week in 16,676 deals.
The Financial Services Industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 2.716 billion shares valued at N17.230 billion traded in 15,103 deals; thus contributing 83.42 per cent and 59.96 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
The Consumer Goods Industry followed with 185.750 million shares worth N6.596 billion in 3,817 deals. The third place was occupied by Conglomerates Industry with a turnover of 156.010 million shares worth N385.427 million in 1,340 deals.
Trading in the top-three equities namely – FBN Holdings Plc, FCMB Group Plc and Zenith International Bank Plc and (measured by volume) accounted for 1.419 billion shares worth N8.185 billion in 5,117 deals, contributing 43.59 per cent and 28.48 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.