Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian exchange rebounded on Tuesday by 1.58 per cent after opening the week bearish on Monday. The growth witnessed during the session was boosted mainly by Airtel Africa Plc and MTN Nigeria Plc.
It was observed that investors took advantage of the cheap prices of stocks at the market yesterday and this caused the renewed bargain hunting seen at the session.
This action moved the All-Share Index (ASI) higher by 609.36 points to 39,176.62 points from 38,567.26 points and lifted the market capitalisation by N318 billion to N20.412 trillion from N20.094 trillion.
According to data from the exchange, Airtel Africa appreciated by 10.00 per cent yesterday to sell at N715.00, Unity Bank rose by 7.14 per cent to 60 kobo, Veritas Kapital grew by 4.35 per cent to 24 kobo, Courtville gained 4.17 per cent to trade at 25 kobo, while Caverton improved by 3.89 per cent to sell at N1.87.
Conversely, Juli recorded the heaviest loss as it depreciated by 9.01 per cent to trade at N1.01, Consolidated Hallmark Insurance dropped 6.90 per cent to quote at 54 kobo, Jaiz Bank lost 4.84 per cent to finish at 59 kobo, Sunu Assurance fell by 4.26 per cent to close at 45 kobo, while Livestock Feeds declined by 3.06 per cent to N1.90.
Business Post reports that on Tuesday, BOC Gases was the most traded stock as it transacted 249.8 million units valued at N1.4 billion. This transaction was a cross deal by Stanbic IBTC Stockbrokers and the price was at N5.50 each.
GTCO was the second most traded equity with the sale of 37.3 million stocks valued at N1.1 billion. Ecobank traded 24.1 million shares worth N131.0 million, Jaiz Bank sold 18.7 million stocks worth N11.6 million, while FBN Holdings traded 10.3 million equities valued at N75.0 million.
At the close of business, investors traded a total of 474.5 million shares worth N4.0 billion in 4,161 deals in contrast to the 194.9 million shares worth N1.0 billion transacted in 3,830 deals on Monday.
This indicated that the volume of shares yesterday increased by 143.41 per cent, the value of trades rose by 292.59 per cent and the number of deals increased by 8.64 per cent.
A look at the performance of the five key sectors of the market yesterday showed that only the oil/gas counter finished in the green zone after it rose by 0.11 per cent.
The insurance sector lost 0.18 per cent, the consumer goods counter decreased by 0.18 per cent, the industrial goods index fell by 0.06 per cent, while the banking space went down by 0.02 per cent.
