By Dipo Olowookere
The first trading day in the new week on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited ended bullish on Monday with buying interest in brewery, cement and insurance stocks driving the market higher by 0.24 per cent.
Business Post reports that the exchange survived the selling pressure from the banking industry, which fell yesterday by 1.29 per cent.
It was observed that the industrial goods counter appreciated by 1.66 per cent, the insurance index improved by 1.05 per cent, the consumer goods space grew by 0.63 per cent, and the energy sector rose by 0.59 per cent.
Consequently, the All-Share Index (ASI) went up by 115.58 points to 48,270.23 points from 48,154.65 points, and the market capitalisation increased by N63 billion to N26.292 trillion from N26.229 trillion.
Investor sentiment remained strong after the market breadth closed positive by printing 19 price gainers and 16 price losers.
Guinness Nigeria topped the advancers’ log after its price jumped by 10.00 per cent to N69.30. Eterna grew by 8.78 per cent to N6.44, Royal Exchange appreciated by 8.33 per cent to 78 Kobo, Linkage Assurance expanded by 7.50 per cent to 43 Kobo, and Presco increased by 6.64 per cent to N120.50.
On the flip side, shares of Geregu dropped 9.85 per cent yesterday to N110.70 amid news that the company was in talks with an investor for funds.
SCOA Nigeria dropped 9.43 per cent to 96 Kobo, Thomas Wyatt went down by 9.09 per cent to 40 Kobo, RT Briscoe depreciated by 7.41 per cent to 25 Kobo, and Lasaco Assurance declined by 4.49 per cent to 85 Kobo.
UPDC REIT was the most traded stock during the session as it sold 460.7 million units in an off-market transaction believed to be the transfer of equities to another investor.
FBN Holdings traded 83.8 million shares, Zenith Bank transacted 11.5 million equities, Transcorp sold 10.5 million stocks, and GTCO exchanged 8.3 million shares.
At the close of business, the trading volume skyrocketed by 303.56 per cent to 645.0 million stocks from 159.8 million, the number of deals increased by 13.18 per cent to 3,486 deals from 3,080 deals, while the trading value decreased by 16.96 per cent to N4.2 billion from N5.1 billion.
