By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited sustained its upward movement on Wednesday as it closed higher by 3.13 per cent when the closing gong was struck by 2:30 pm.
The bullish run persisted due to the aggressive demand for financial stocks, as investors bet on them because they projected that the suspension of Mr Godwin Emefiele as the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) would give financial institutions a breathing space to operate optimally.
Business Post reports that the banking index rose by 26.52 per cent, the insurance counter grew by 22.98 per cent, the energy sector appreciated by 16.01 per cent, and the consumer goods counter went up by 4.09 per cent, while the industrial goods sector depreciated by 1.13 per cent.
As a result, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 1,821.55 points to 59,985.10 points from 58,163.55 points, and the market capitalisation expanded by N992 billion to N32.662 trillion from N31.670 trillion.
The renewed interest in equities left the activity chart in the green territory today as the trading volume, value, and the number of deals moved up by 8.33 per cent, 9.90 per cent, and 15.22 per cent, respectively.
Data showed that investors bought and sold 1.3 billion stocks worth N21.1 billion in 11,947 deals compared with the 1.2 billion stocks worth N19.2 billion traded in 10,369 deals on Tuesday.
UBA finished the session as the busiest after it transacted 230.8 million equities worth N2.7 billion, GTCO traded 125.5 million shares valued at N4.2 billion, Zenith Bank exchanged 119.1 million stocks for N4.0 billion, Access Holdings sold 92.8 million shares valued at N1.5 billion, and Fidelity Bank traded 75.6 million equities worth N494.1 million.
Like the preceding trading session, investor sentiment was bullish as the bourse finished with 70 price gainers and 13 price losers, indicating a positive market breadth index.
The top five, International Breweries, Sterling Holdings, Transcorp Hotel, Dangote Sugar, and Seplat Energy gained 10.00 per cent each in the midweek session to settle at N5.50, N2.75, N12.10, N25.30, and N1,320.00 apiece.
The heaviest price loser of the day was Pharma Deko, which lost 9.65 per cent to finish at N2.06, CWG dropped 9.44 per cent to N1.63, Northern Nigerian Flour Mills depleted by 8.66 per cent to N12.65, BUA Cement fell by 6.52 per cent to N86.00, and Ardova decreased by 5.06 per cent to N16.90.
