If the performance of the agro-allied companies on the stock exchange is the right indicator to rate commodities in the country, then agriculture may have started the race to the top. This is because the sector gave the other sectors a beating at the beginning of this week at the stock exchange. The sector gained N16.53 billion when profits were recorded in favour of Tantaliser, a fast-food company, and Livestock Feeds. For the two companies there was a record 8.89 percent appreciation for Tanterliser, while Livestock Feeds recorded 8.18 percent. They beat otherwise well performing listed companies like Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals, which recorded 8.05 percent.
At the close of trading on Monday, the market capitalization had increased by 0.03 per cent to N56.95tn from N56.93tn recorded the previous Friday. The All Share Index appreciated by 0.03 percent, settling at 100,568.60 points from the previous close of 100,539.40 points on Friday. This brought the year-to-date return to 34.49 percent. Generally, trading activities on Monday were bullish, as there were 23 gainers as against 15 losers. The day also showed that investors traded 335,704,787 units of shares valued at N3.72bn in 8,760 deals. However, the volume of trade dipped by 79.89 percent to 335,704,787 million, while the number of deals executed also reduced to 8,760 from 9,988 deals by the previous Friday.
