By Chinwendu Obienyi
Impressive third quarter (Q3) earning reports by the highly influential; large to mid-cap companies drove market capitalisation of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) up by N982 billion as the month of October finished in the green.
Daily Sun analysis revealed that benchmark indices for the stock market at the weekend showed average return of 4.52 per cent for the October 2021, strengthening the outlook for a second positive consecutive yearly return for the market while the All Share Index (ASI) which opened the month under review at 40,221.17 points rose by 1,817.51 basis points to close October at 42,038.60 points. In the same vein, market capitalisation which opened the month at N20.956 trillion grew by N982 billion to close at N21.938 trillion while the average year-to-date return for the market now stands at 4.39 per cent compared with negative returns of -0.12 per cent and 5.87 per cent in September and June.
There were concerns over Q3 2021 earnings and that it would have a negative impact on the performance of the market in the month under review, however, the earnings accompanied by dividend declarations continued to spur bargain-hunting on the equities sector of the market.