By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited rebounded on Thursday by 0.17 per cent following the rush for Access Bank Plc stocks by investors, especially the dividend hunters.
After the close of trading activities on Wednesday, the lender released its much-anticipated earnings for the period ended June 2021 and it proposed the payment of an interim dividend of 30 kobo.
This announcement, coupled with the improvement in its results, spurred bargain hunting at the stock market yesterday, with Access Bank stocks emerging as the most traded, selling 51.1 million units valued at N471.2 million.
It was trailed by Transcorp, which transacted 36.1 million units worth N32.5 million, Honeywell Flour sold 18.6 million units worth N72.4 million, Mutual Benefits Assurance exchanged 17.7 million units valued at N5.2 million, while Sovereign Trust Insurance traded 16.8 million units valued at N4.1 million.
In the end, a total of 262.1 million shares worth N2.0 billion were traded in 3,955 deals compared with the 169.3 million shares worth N1.4 billion transacted in 3,449 deals on Wednesday, indicating a growth in the trading volume, value and the number of deals by 54.84 per cent, 40.34 per cent and 14.67 per cent respectively.
Business Post reports that despite the buying pressure witnessed at the exchange yesterday, the market breadth still closed negative as a result of the 18 price losers as against the 16 price gainers recorded in the session.
The highest gainer was Chams as it rose by 4.76 per cent to 22 kobo. Prestige Assurance appreciated by 4.35 per cent to 48 kobo, Wema Bank grew by 3.66 per cent to 85 kobo, Axa Mansard increased by 3.49 per cent to 89 kobo, while Julius Berger gained 2.97 per cent to sell for N26.00.
However, the highest price loser for the trading day was Unity Bank as it fell by 8.62 per cent to 53 kobo, Oando lost 7.03 per cent to trade at N4.10, Union Bank depreciated by 6.54 per cent to N5.00, FTN Cocoa went down by 5.77 per cent to 49 kobo, while Honeywell Flour dropped 4.88 per cent to N3.90.
Unlike the previous session, the sectoral performance was better on Thursday as three of the five key sectors closed positive with the insurance, industrial goods and the banking indices closing higher by 1.07 per cent, 0.44 per cent and 0.19 per cent respectively, while the energy and the consumer goods counters lost 1.22 per cent and 0.06 per cent apiece.
When the closing bell was beaten at 2:30 pm yesterday, the All-Share Index (ASI) went up by 68.01 points to 39,252.19 points from 39,184.18 points, while the market capitalisation grew by N35 billion to N20.451 trillion from N20.416 trillion.
Adedapo Adesanya