By Dipo Olowookere
It was a busy trading day on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Monday as the market closed 0.14 per cent higher, putting an end to the losses reported in the past three consecutive sessions.
News of the acquisition of Honeywell Flour Mills by a rival company, Flour Mills of Nigeria, triggered interest in the market yesterday just as the off-market deal in over a billion units of Oando shares also caught the attention of traders.
Consequently, the trading volume significantly rose by 1,103.94 per cent to 2.4 billion shares from the preceding day’s 199.5 million shares.
In the same vein, the trading value jumped by 405.72 per cent to N16.5 billion from N3.3 billion, while the number of deals appreciated by 22.82 per cent to 4,811 deals from 3,917 deals.
At the close of transactions, Oando was the most active stock with the sale of 2.0 billion units valued at N11.8 billion and was followed by Mutual Benefits Assurance with a turnover of 134.0 million units valued at N32.6 million.
FBN Holdings traded 88.7 million stocks valued at N1.1 billion, GTCO transacted 43.2 million shares worth N1.1 billion, while Sterling Bank exchanged 244.5 million equities for N37.8 million.
Business Post reports that investor sentiment was positive yesterday as there were 16 depreciating stocks and 18 appreciating stocks led by Honeywell, which gained 9.73 per cent to sell for N3.72.
NEM Insurance grew by 7.89 per cent to trade at N2.05, FBN Holdings rose by 6.49 per cent to N12.30, Oando improved by 5.97 per cent to N5.15, while Champion Breweries appreciated by 3.83 per cent to N2.71.
Conversely, The Initiates Plc was the heaviest price loser on Monday as it fell by 9.76 per cent to 37 kobo and was followed by UPDC, which depreciated by 9.74 per cent to N1.39.
FTN Cocoa declined by 9.09 per cent to sell for 40 kobo, Japaul went down by 4.88 per cent to 39 kobo, while Universal Insurance decreased by 4.76 per cent to quote at 20 kobo.
During the session, the industrial goods sector was the only decliner of the five major sectors of the market tracked by this newspaper as it lost 0.14 per cent.
The energy space appreciated by 1.27 per cent, the insurance counter improved by 0.86 per cent, the banking index appreciated by 0.76 per cent, while the consumer goods sector rose by 0.01 per cent.
When the market closed for the day, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 60.86 points to 43,260.13 points from 43,199.27 points, while the market capitalisation expanded by N32 billion to N22.576 trillion from N22.544 trillion.
Adedapo Adesanya