Bargain Hunters Pounce on GTCO, PZ, Others to Lift NGX by 0.22%

By Dipo Olowookere

Bargain hunters had a field day on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Monday, resulting in a 0.22 per cent growth at the close of trading activities.

It was observed that there was buying pressure across the main sectors of the bourse yesterday, with the insurance counter the best-performing after it closed higher by 0.81 per cent.

The banking sector appreciated by 0.62 per cent, the consumer goods category improved by 0.56 per cent, the energy sector went up by 0.35 per cent, and the industrial goods counter chalked up 0.03 per cent.

This consequently pushed the All-Share Index (ASI) higher by 113.00 points to 52,579.52 points from 52,466.52 points and raised the market capitalisation by N62 billion to N28.630 trillion from N28.568 trillion.

The market breadth was positive yesterday due to the gainers’ chart recording 29 stocks and the losers’ table having 17 equities, indicating a strong investor sentiment.

Multiverse gained 10.00 per cent to trade at N3.41, Red Star Express rose by 9.96 per cent to N2.65, CWG appreciated by 9.85 per cent to N1.45, McNichols rose by 9.23 per cent to 71 Kobo, and International Breweries jumped by 6.82 per cent to N4.70.

At the market on Monday, C&I Leasing lost 9.80 per cent to finish at N3.59, Transcorp shed 7.73 per cent to N1.79, FTN Cocoa declined by 6.90 per cent to 27 Kobo, Chams depreciated by 6.45 per cent to 29 Kobo, and Custodian Investment depleted by 4.80 per cent to N5.95.

A look at the activity chart revealed that Access Holdings was the busiest during the session after it recorded the sale of 167.6 million units valued at N1.9 billion.

FBN Holdings traded 91.3 million stocks for N1.1 billion, UBA transacted 78.1 million equities worth N623.4 million, Transcorp sold 29.6 million shares valued at N53.2 million, and AXA Mansard traded 18.2 million shares worth N45.7 million.

In all, investors traded 511.4 million equities worth N7.1 billion in 5,883 deals on Monday, in contrast to the 482.6 million stocks worth N5.6 billion traded in 5,298 deals last Friday, implying an increase in the trading volume, value and the number of deals by 5.97 per cent, 24.56 per cent, and 11.04 per cent, respectively.