26 Equities Gain Weight in One Week on Local Stock Exchange

By Dipo Olowookere

The local stock exchange recorded a 0.12 per cent week-on-week expansion last week as a result of the gains achieved by 26 equities on the platform. The number of price advancers, however, was lower than the 33 posted in the preceding week.

In the five-day trading week, there were 63 price losers, higher than 56 of the previous week, while 58 stocks closed flat versus 58 stocks of the earlier week.

The price advancers were led by AVA Capital, which grew by 33.33 per cent to N11.00. FCMB gained 13.10 per cent to trade at N12.95, First Holdco appreciated by 12.23 per cent to N145.40, Fortis Global Insurance soared by 11.11 per cent to N2.60, and Linkage Assurance went up by 10.63 per cent to N1.77.

On the flip side, Thomas Wyatt shed 26.71 per cent to close at N3.21, Trans-Nationwide Express crashed by 23.76 per cent to N2.15, CMFC dropped 22.68 per cent to settle at N3.00, Ecobank stumbled by 18.94 per cent to N71.20, and Consolidated Hallmark lost 16.51 per cent to N6.98.

Last week, the All-Share Index (ASI) of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited rose by 0.12 per cent to 245,573.60 points, and the market capitalisation also chalked up 0.12 per cent to finish at N158.513 trillion.

Similarly, all other indices finished higher apart from the main board, insurance, consumer goods, energy, Lotus II, industrial goods, growth, sovereign bond, and commodity indices, which depreciated by 0.83 per cent, 3.31 per cent, 1.75 per cent, 0.03 per cent, 0.46 per cent, 0.17 per cent, 2.14 per cent, 0.09 per cent and 0.01 per cent, respectively.

In the week, market participants transacted 5.359 billion shares worth N139.053 billion in 261,869 deals compared with the 5.119 billion shares valued at N404.762 billion traded in 285,223 deals a week earlier.

Data showed that the Financial Services space led the activity chart with 3.469 billion shares sold for N73.013 billion in 117,509 deals, contributing 64.73 per cent and 52.51 per cent to the total trading volume and value, respectively. The energy counter followed with 1.023 billion shares worth N18.900 billion in 17,680 deals, and the ICT sector recorded a turnover of 232.368 million shares worth N14.624 billion in 31,866 deals.

Japaul, Fortis Global Insurance, and FCMB accounted for 2.562 billion units valued at N14.173 billion in 6,645 deals, contributing 47.80 per cent and 10.19 per cent to the total trading volume and value, respectively.