By Dipo Olowookere
Last week, PZ Cussons’ shareholders were in a happy mood and the reason was that their investment in the company yielded good returns.
The share price of the company on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited improved by 21.22 per cent in the week to N5.45 from N4.50 it closed the previous.
This development made PZ Cussons the best-performing stock in the 5-day trading week on the exchange. There were a total of 39 equities on the gainers’ chart compared with the 18 equities in the previous week.
University Press appreciated by 19.63 per cent to sell for N1.28, Honeywell Flour rose by 17.65 per cent to N1.40, Mutual Benefits Assurance gained 14.71 per cent to 39 kobo, while Northern Nigerian Flour Mills increased by 11.21 per cent to N5.95.
Also in the week, there were 24 price losers, lower than 47 price losers of the preceding week and they were led by FTN Cocoa, which lost 22.00 per cent to settle at 39 kobo.
Portland Paints depreciated by 18.09 per cent to sell for N2.40, Eko Corporation went down by 10.00 per cent to N5.40, Guinness Nigeria declined by 9.89 per cent to N28.70, while Union Dicon Salt dropped 9.59 per cent to N9.90.
Business Post reports that the All-Share Index (ASI) and market capitalisation appreciated last week by 1.27 per cent to close at 39,301.82 points and N20.568 trillion respectively.
All other indices finished higher with the exception of the sovereign bond index, which depreciated by 0.94 per cent while the ASeM and growth indices closed flat.
On the activity chart, investors traded 1.6 billion shares worth N42.1 billion in 19,507 deals compared with the 1.3 billion shares valued at N10.8 billion transacted a week earlier in 19,975 deals.
Financial stocks dominated the market with 1.0 billion units valued at N9.2 billion traded in 11,095 deals, contributing 64.22 per cent and 21.80 per cent to the total trading volume and value respectively.
ICT equities followed with 215.5 million units worth N29.9 billion in 566 deals, while conglomerates shares traded 118.5 million units valued at N676.0 million in 1,088 deals.
Fidelity Bank, MTN Nigeria and GTBank were the most traded stocks with 580.8 million units worth N34.4 billion in 3,197 deals, accounting for 36.25 per cent and 81.61 per cent of the total trading volume and value respectively.
