Market Gains 0.05% on Buying Interest in Banking, Industrial Goods Stocks

By Dipo Olowookere

Buying interest in some banking and industrial goods equities contributed to the marginal 0.05 per cent growth recorded at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Monday.

Business Post observed that investors picked a keen interest in GTBank and Zenith Bank stocks at the bourse yesterday as their qualification dates for interim dividend payment draw closer.

Also, shares of Dangote Cement and Lafarge Africa caught the attention of bargain hunters during the day and activities around them supported the upward movement.

At the close of transactions, only the industrial goods and banking sectors closed in the green territory of the five major sub-sectors of the exchange.

The industrial goods space appreciated by 0.51 per cent, while the banking counter improved by 0.15 per cent, with the consumer goods, energy and insurance sectors declining by 0.50 per cent, 0.08 per cent and 0.07 per cent respectively.

The All-Share Index (ASI) increased on Monday by 13.64 points to 25,605.59 points from 25,591.95 points, while the market capitalisation grew by N7 billion to N13.358 trillion from N13.351 trillion.

An analysis of the day’s trading showed that the market breadth closed positive with 17 price gainers and 16 price losers.

CAP was the biggest price gainers, appreciating by N1.05 to settle at N16.80 per share and was followed by Dangote Cement, which grew by N1 to sell for N135 per unit.

Lafarge Africa gained 25 kobo to quote at N13.05 per share, Neimeth appreciated by 17 kobo to trade at N1.95 per share, while GTBank garnered 10 kobo to close at N25.10 per unit.

On the losers’ log, Stanbic IBTC topped with a loss of 50 kobo to settle at N39.50 per share and was trailed by International Breweries, which lost 30 kobo to close at N3.20 per unit.

Fidson depreciated by 20 kobo to sell for N3.50 per share, FCMB went down by 17 kobo to finish at N2.03 per share, while UAC Property lost 8 kobo to close at 87 kobo per unit.

The activity chart closed in green on Monday following the 20.82 per cent rise in the trading volume from 212.7 million shares to 257.0 million shares, 45.73 per cent increase in the trading value from N2.3 billion to N3.3 billion and 10.13 per cent growth in the number of deals from 3,239 deals to 3,567 deals.

Custodian Investment was the most traded stock at the market yesterday. The company exchanged 49.3 million units of its securities worth N236.5 million during the session.

GTBank traded 29.6 million shares for N739.2 million, Lafarge Africa exchanged 23.6 million equities worth N306.4 million, FBN Holdings transacted 19.6 million stocks for N100.1 million, while Access Bank traded 16.4 million shares worth N110.7 million.