Bulls Tighten Grip on Nigerian Exchange, Extend Rally by 0.12%

By Dipo Olowookere

It was another bullish performance for the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Wednesday as it further gained by 0.12 per cent at the close of business.

The trio of Nigerian Breweries, NAHCO and Living Trust Mortgage Bank appreciated by 10.00 per cent each in the midweek session to settle at N45.10, N7.70, and N1.76, respectively, as FCMB gained 9.97 per cent to trade at N3.86, and Fidelity Bank rose by 9.86 per cent to N4.79.

Conversely, Champion Breweries lost 10.00 per cent to close at N4.95, Unity Bank fell by 6.78 per cent to 55 Kobo, UBA went down by 3.61 per cent to N8.00, Jaiz Bank dropped 3.33 per cent to trade at 87 Kobo, and Consolidated Hallmark Insurance depreciated by 2.99 per cent to 65 Kobo.

Business Post reports that the market breadth ended positive yesterday, with 21 appreciating stocks and 12 depreciating stocks, indicating a strong investor sentiment.

It was observed that there were buying interests in the consumer goods, insurance and banking counters during the session as they closed higher by 2.09 per cent, 0.93 per cent, and 0.51 per cent, respectively.

However, the selling pressure on the industrial goods sector weakened it by 0.77 per cent at the close of transactions, as the energy counter closed flat.

At the close of business, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 61.90 points to 51,657.56 points from 51,595.66 points, and the market capitalisation grew by N34 billion to N28.137 trillion from N28.103 trillion.

BUA Cement was the busiest equity yesterday after transacting 101.7 million units, followed by Transcorp, which traded 32.8 million units. Access Holdings exchanged 23.0 million shares, GTCO transacted 12.2 million stocks, and UBA also sold 12.2 million equities.

In all, investors traded 265.7 million shares valued at N13.5 billion in 4,156 deals as against the 321.7 million shares worth N4.4 billion transacted in 4,122 deals on Tuesday. This implied that the trading volume decreased by 17.41 per cent, and the trading value and the number of deals increased by 206.82 per cent and 0.82 per cent, respectively.