CAP, GTBank Lead Equities Market Back to Growth by 0.02% Friday

By Dipo Olowookere

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) rebounded on Friday following the marginal 0.02 per cent growth printed by the equities market at the close of activities.

CAP, GTBank and 10 other stocks boosted the gains yesterday, performing well to chase the bears from the market and slightly reduced the year-to-date loss to 5.71 per cent.

CAP added 55 kobo to its share price to close at N16.70 per unit, GTBank gained 20 kobo to finish at N25.40 per share, Access Bank bounced back with a price appreciation of 15 kobo to sell for N6.40 per share, FCMB appreciated by 5 kobo to N2.15 per unit, while United Capital grew by 5 kobo to N3.10 per unit.

At the other side, Guinness Nigeria was heaviest price loser, depreciating by N1.45 to trade at N14.15 per share, FBN Holdings fell by 10 kobo to N4.95 per unit, UAC Nigeria, UBA and Ecobank depreciated by 5 kobo each to close at N5.70 per share, N6.35 per unit and N3.90 per share respectively.

Business Post reports that the activity level was weak in the final trading session of the week following the 44.99 per cent, 41.09 per cent and 0.90 per cent in the trading volume, value and the number of deals respectively.

A total of 137.1 million shares worth N920.5 million were traded in 2,869 deals on Friday in contrast to the 249.1 million equities worth N1.6 billion transacted in 2,895 deals on Thursday.

It was observed that the low price Access Bank shares were sold the previous day gave investors the opportunity to mop them up yesterday as predicted in our earlier report, closing as the most active after trading 25.8 million units valued at N162.5 million.

FBN Holdings exchanged 15.7 million equities valued at N77.7 million, FTN Cocoa sold 11.3 million units valued at N2.4 million, Royal Exchange transacted 11.2 million shares worth N2.5 million, while FCMB exchanged 8.1 million stocks for N17.2 million.

Apart from the consumer goods sector, which lost 0.20 per cent and the energy index, which closed flat again, every other sector closed in green.

The insurance counter gained 0.62 per cent, the banking space appreciated by 0.37 per cent, while the industrial goods sector recorded a marginal growth of 0.01 per cent.

Also, the All-Share Index (ASI) appreciated slightly by 0.02 per cent or 5.12 points to settle at 25,309.37 points as against the previous 25,304.25 points.

In the same vein, the market capitalisation increased by 0.02 per cent or N3 billion to close at N13.204 trillion versus N13.201 trillion it ended on Thursday.