By Dipo Olowookere
After being in the den of the bears for the past seven trading sessions, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has heaved a sigh of relief again.
At Friday’s trading session, the local stock market finished in the green territory, appreciating by 0.20 percent at the close of transactions. This shrank the year-to-date loss to 11.17 percent from 11.35 percent on Thursday.
Business Post reports that the gains achieved today were influenced by the huge purchase of stocks in the oil and gas, banking and consumer goods sectors.
While the banking index rose by 0.60 percent, the consumer goods index appreciated by 0.44 percent, with the oil and gas index improving by 0.75 percent.
However, the insurance sector lost 0.31 percent, while the industrial index depreciated by 1.45 percent.
At the close of business today, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 55.01 points or 0.20 percent to settle at 27,919.50 points against 27,864.49 points of the previous session.
Also, the market capitalisation increased by N27 billion to finish at N13.607 trillion in contrast to N13.580 it ended the previous day.
Forte Oil led the gainers’ chart, which had 13 other counters at Friday’s market day on the NSE, adding N1.80k to its share price to finish at N20.15k per share.
MTN Nigeria and Nigerian Breweries added N1 each to their share value to settle at N128 and N59 respectively, while Flour Mills and Access Bank both gained 40 kobo each to close at N14.40k and N6.40k respectively.
At the other side, CCNN dominated the losers table comprising 21 equities in total, going down today by N1.05k to settle at N12 per unit and was followed by Stanbic IBTC, which fell by 50 kobo to close at N38 per unit.
Fidson depreciated by 45 kobo to end at N4.10k per share, UAC Nigeria declined by 40 kobo to finish at N5.40k per unit, while PZ Cussons decreased by 20 kobo to close at N5.80k per share.
Business Post observed that the volume of transactions by investors increased today by 56.37 percent to 274.2 million from 175.4 million yesterday, while the value of the total trades rose by 4.78 percent to N2.8 billion from N2.7 billion.
These trades were dominated by financial stocks, which recorded a total of 210.2 million units sold for N1.9 billion. It was closely trailed by ICT stocks with a turnover of 21.6 million shares exchanged for N169 million.
A further breakdown showed that UBA topped the activity log with a turnover of 45.3 million shares traded for N249.6 million, with Access Bank following with 42.8 million equities worth N259.5 million.
FBN Holdings transacted 41.9 million shares valued at N238.6 million, GTBank exchanged 26.6 million units for N777.8 million, while Courtville traded 20.2 million equities worth N4.1 million.
Investors would be hoping for the market to sustain this bullish position recorded today next Monday, when the activities resume on the trading floor of the NSE.
Adedapo Adesanya