By Dipo Olowookere
Transactions on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) were bullish on Thursday following the encouraging half-year earnings of the big banks at the market.
The trailblazing was started by Stanbic IBTC Holdings and was followed by UBA, GTBank and Zenith Bank and their positive results pushed investors to buy more stocks, helping the market to rise by 0.20 per cent at the close of business.
Consequently, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 51.02 points to 25,511.02 points from 25,460.00 points, while the market capitalisation grew by N27 billion to N13.309 trillion from N13.282 trillion.
Business Post reports that the financial stocks performed well during the session as insurance index rose by 0.50 per cent, while the banking index closed 0.46 per cent higher, with the consumer goods counter appreciating by 0.02 per cent. However, the energy and industrial goods sectors closed flat.
On the price movement chart, MTN Nigeria topped the gainers’ log with a price appreciation of 60 kobo to finish at N118.60 per unit, while Vitafoam gained 28 kobo to sell for N5.78 per unit.
UAC Nigeria improved by 25 kobo to quote at N6.20 per share, Zenith Bank appreciated by 25 kobo to finish at N17.20 per unit, while FCMB garnered 10 kobo to close at N2.20 per unit.
On the flip side, Neimeth led the losers’ chart of six members on Thursday after shedding 13 kobo to settle at N1.87 per unit and was deputised by Sterling Bank, which lost 6 kobo to close at N1.19 per unit.
AIICO Insurance, which commenced its rights issue on Wednesday at 80 kobo per unit on the basis of five new ordinary shares for every 13 ordinary shares held as at the close of business on Monday, June 15, 2020, suffered a 5 kobo loss on Thursday to close at 90 kobo per share.
Transcorp and Fidelity Bank went down by one kobo each to finish at 58 kobo per share and N1.80 per share respectively.
As earlier stated, more shares were traded during Thursday’s market as reflected in the activity chart, which had the trading volume, value and number of deals rising by 33.88 per cent, 33.91 per cent and 2.40 per cent respectively.
A total of 232.4 million stocks worth N1.3 billion exchanged hands yesterday in 3,377 deals compared with the 173.6 million equities worth N982.2 million transacted the previous day in 3,298 deals.
Transcorp was the most active stock during the session, transacting 70.6 million units valued at N40.1 million and was trailed by Zenith Bank, which traded 25.5 million shares for N435.2 million.
LASACO Assurance exchanged 17.1 million equities worth N4.5 million, Access Bank transacted 14.8 million stocks valued at N94.7 million, while UBA exchanged 13.2 million shares for N86.0 million.
