NSE Index Hits 8-Week High on Banking Stocks’ Gains

By Dipo Olowookere

The All-Share Index (ASI) of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Friday reached the level it last attained about eight weeks ago.

Business Post reports that the local bourse, which appreciated yesterday by 0.45 per cent, had its benchmark index closing at 25,041.89 points after adding 111.55 points to the previous day’s 24,930.34 points.

The last time the ASI was in this region was on Thursday, June 11, 2020, when it finished at 25,182.67 points, a day before the June 12 public holiday.

It was observed that the growth sustained yesterday was because of the positive performance of equities in the banking and other sectors of the market.

Apart from the insurance index, which went down by 0.53 per cent yesterday, every other sector closed positive during the session.

The banking index appreciated by 2.38 per cent, the consumer goods space followed with 0.42 per cent growth, the oil/gas counter rose by 0.08 per cent, while the industrial goods index recorded a marginal gain of 0.02 per cent.

These gains helped the market capitalisation to increase on Friday by N58 billion to N13.063 trillion from N13.005 trillion.

The jerking up of the total market value was from 23 price gainers of the market.

Value Alliance Value Fund was the highest price gainer yesterday, appreciating by N10.30 to settle at N113.50 per share.

Okomu Oil gained N2.05 to close at N77 per unit, GTBank garnered 60 kobo to sell at N24.35 per share, Guinness Nigeria gained 60 kobo to quote at N14.10 per unit, while Dangote Sugar appreciated by 40 kobo to close at N11.90 per share.

On the losers’ chart, which had five members yesterday, UAC Nigeria was on top after losing 65 kobo of its share value to finish at N6.20 per unit.

Consolidated Hallmark Insurance lost 4 kobo to close at 41 kobo per share, AIICO Insurance depreciated by 3 kobo to quote at 90 kobo per unit, Jaiz Bank declined by 2 kobo to end at 57 kobo per share, while Transcorp went down by one kobo to settle at 61 kobo per share.

GTBank was the most traded stock yesterday, exchanging 27.2 million units worth N657.6 million and closely following was FBN Holdings, which traded 23.0 million units valued at N116.9 million.

Sterling Bank sold 12.6 million shares for N15.1 million, Zenith Bank traded 11.3 million stocks for N191.5 million, while Lafarge Africa transacted 10.8 million equities valued at N126.6 million.

In all, a total of 4.0 million shares worth N2.0 billion were traded in 4,036 deals on Friday in contrast to 173.7 million equities worth N2.1 billion transacted in 3,646 deals on Thursday.