By Dipo Olowookere
What looked like the first loss in nine consecutive sessions at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) was averted on Thursday after stocks in the consumer goods and industrial goods sectors took control of the market from their banking counterpart.
Earlier in the day, the market was walking “through the valley of the shadow of death,” no thanks to banking equities, which was experiencing selloffs from investors.
However, buying interests in Dangote Cement, Nestle Nigeria and others boosted the NSE’s immunity against loss by 0.87 percent.
The last time the exchange ‘tasted defeat’ was on April 23, 2020, when it closed lower by 1.36 percent.
At the close of transactions on Thursday, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 210.88 points to settle at 24,354.25 points, while the market capitalisation went up by N110 billion to N12.692 trillion from N12.582 trillion.
Business Post reports that apart from the banking index, which closed lower by 1.98 percent, other sectors closed higher.
The consumer goods space gained 2.37 percent, the industrial goods sector appreciated by 1.96 percent, the insurance counter improved by 0.93 percent, while the energy sector gained 0.57 percent.
It was observed that the market breadth closed positive yesterday with 21 price advancers and 20 price decliners.
Nestle Nigeria was the best performing stock, gaining N25 to settle at N1000 per unit, while Dangote Cement trailed for adding N6.20 to its share value to sell at N150 each.
Nigerian Breweries appreciated by N1.90 to trade at N34.90 per share, Conoil improved by N1.70 to quote at N19.10 per share, while Ardova maintained its bull run by rising by N1.35 to sell at N15.30 per unit.
Conversely, Guinness Nigeria closed as the worst performing equity, losing 65 kobo to sell at N18.30 per share.
Zenith Bank lost 60 kobo yesterday to trade at N15.20 per share, GTBank fell by 45 kobo to quote at N22.50 per unit, Lafarge Africa depreciated by 25 kobo to trade at N10.90 per share, while FBN Holdings deflated by 20 kobo to N4.70 per share.
A total of 431.6 million equities worth N5.3 billion exchanged hands in 5,860 deals on Thursday compared with the 426.6 million stocks valued at N4.1 billion transacted in 7,384 deals on Wednesday.
This indicated that while the volume and value of transactions went up by 1.16 percent and 28.24 percent respectively, the number of deals went down by 20.64 percent.
FBN Holdings was the most attractive to investors, selling 115.6 million units worth N543.1 million, while Zenith Bank traded 75.9 million equities valued at N1.1 billion.
In addition, GTBank exchanged 54.9 million stocks for N1.2 billion, Ecobank transacted 39.6 million shares for N197.3 million, while Mutual Benefits Assurance sold 31.0 million stocks valued at N6.4 million.
Adedapo Adesanya