By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited appreciated by 2.93 per cent on Monday on the back of significant gain by the shares of Airtel Africa, MTN Nigeria, Unilever Nigeria and others.
This raised the All-Share Index (ASI) of the exchange higher by 1,232.37 points to 43,246.87 points from 42,014.50 points and jerked the market capitalisation higher by N643 billion to N22.569 trillion from N21.926 trillion.
Airtel Africa was the best-performing stock yesterday with a growth of 10.00 per cent to trade at N858.00, followed by Red Star Express, which grew by 9.94 per cent to finish at N3.43.
Cutix appreciated by 9.91 per cent to sell for N6.21, MTN Nigeria improved by 9.62 per cent to settle at N192.50, while Unilever Nigeria gained 9.36 per cent to quote at N14.60.
On the other side, Conoil was the worst-performing stock as it shed 9.80 per cent to sell at N23.00, CWG fell by 9.73 per cent to trade at N1.02, Custodian Investment went down by 9.47 per cent to close at N7.65, Honeywell Flour depreciated by 9.07 per cent to N3.31, while Africa Prudential declined by 4.72 per cent to N6.05.
At the close of business, Business Post observed that the investor sentiment was weak despite the significant growth posted yesterday as there were 26 price losers and 18 price gainers.
This was reflected in the performance of the five key sectors of the exchange as only two closed green (consumer goods at 0.25 per cent and industrial goods at 0.13 per cent).
The insurance sector lost 1.43 per cent, the energy counter depreciated by 0.57 per cent, while the banking space went down by 0.09 per cent.
Sterling Bank was the most traded stock at the exchange on Monday and this was because of the cross deal it recorded. A total of 81.2 million shares of the company worth N121.9 million were transacted.
UAC Nigeria exchanged 67.3 million stocks worth N706.4 million, FBN Holdings transacted 42.2 million shares valued at N473.5 million, Zenith Bank traded 32.6 million equities valued at N797.4 million, while Transcorp sold 21.0 million equities for N21.6 million.
In all, a total of 443.6 million stocks worth N5.1 billion were traded by investors in 5,233 deals yesterday as against the 277.0 million stocks worth N2.4 billion traded last Friday in 3,524 deals, indicating an increase in the trading volume, value and number of deals by 60.12 per cent, 111.87 per cent and 48.50 per cent respectively.
Adedapo Adesanya