Unity Bank Lifts Market by 0.04% as Best-performing Stock

By Dipo Olowookere

The local stock market rebounded by 0.04 per cent on Wednesday following renewed buying interest in banking equities like Unity Bank, Zenith Bank, GTCO, and others.

Also, bargain-hunting in industrial goods shares like Dangote Cement contributed to the uplifting of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited at the close of transactions.

According to data, the All-Share Index (ASI) grew by 15.88 points to 43,477.48 points from 43,461.60 points, as the market capitalisation increased by N9 billion to close at N23.681 trillion, in contrast to the previous N23.672 trillion.

Business Post reports that for the second trading session, Unity Bank ended as the best-performing stock, gaining 9.09 per cent at midweek to trade at 48 Kobo. Linkage Assurance expanded by 7.69 per cent to 42 Kobo, Royal Exchange grew by 7.32 per cent to 88 Kobo, Chams appreciated by 4.35 per cent to 24 Kobo, and Mutual Benefits rose by 3.85 per cent to 27 Kobo.

On the other hand, Honeywell Flour closed the trading day as the worst-performing equity after its value went down by 9.09 per cent to N2.00. Prestige Assurance dropped 8.70 per cent to quote at 42 Kobo, Presco depreciated by 6.15 per cent to N120.50, Jaiz Bank deflated by 6.00 per cent to 94 Kobo, and Oando contracted by 4.41 per cent to N3.90.

Investor sentiment was better yesterday as a result of the positive market breadth influenced by 12 price gainers, which were marginally more than the 11 price losers.

The industrial goods and banking sectors made this possible as they improved by 0.27 per cent and 0.04 per cent, respectively.

The energy index depreciated by 0.67 per cent, the insurance counter went down by 0.38 per cent, and the consumer goods space lost 0.17 per cent.

Unlike the prior trading session, the activity level was low on Wednesday as the trading volume, value and number of deals decreased by 46.62 per cent, 28.00 per cent, and 6.24 per cent, respectively.

A total of 133.4 million shares worth N1.8 billion were traded in 3,078 deals yesterday, in contrast to the 249.9 million shares worth N2.5 billion traded in 3,283 deals on Tuesday.

FBN Holdings recorded the highest sales, transacting 30.4 million units. Oando sold 16.8 million units, Zenith Bank traded 13.5 million units, UBA transacted 9.9 million units, and GTCO exchanged 9.0 million units.