Customs Street Gains N20bn as Investors Trade 140.8 million Stocks

By Dipo Olowookere

The key performance indicators of Customs Street, where the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited is located, slightly improved by 0.07 per cent on Monday on the back of renewed bargain-hunting.

It was observed that traders had confidence in the market, resulting in the exchange finishing with 18 price gainers and eight price losers. This means that the market breadth was positive, buoyed by strong investor sentiment.

Conoil topped the gainers’ log with a 9.98 per cent price appreciation to settle at N35.25, MRS Oil jumped by 8.24 per cent to N23.00, Chams expanded by 8.00 per cent to 27 Kobo, GlaxoSmithKline inflated by 6.25 per cent to N6.80, and Champion Breweries rose by 6.22 per cent to N4.78.

On the flip side, CWG, which fell by 9.18 per cent, topped the losers’ table to close at 89 Kobo, Fidelity Bank lost 2.87 per cent to trade at N5.42, NAHCO went down by 2.38 per cent to N8.20, FBN Holdings slumped by 1.69 per cent to N11.65, and Union Bank retreated by 0.75 per cent to N6.65.

According to data obtained by Business Post, the buying pressure witnessed yesterday was across the major sectors of the bourse, with energy, banking, insurance, industrial goods and the consumer goods counters closing higher by 0.98 per cent, 0.56 per cent, 0.49 per cent, 0.12 per cent, and 0.05 per cent, respectively.

This raised the All-Share Index (ASI) by 37.37 points to 54,364.67 points from 54,327.30 points, as the market capitalisation grew by N20 billion to finish at N29.611 trillion compared with the previous N29.591 trillion.

The local stock market closed bullish despite a weak activity level as the volume of shares, the value of stocks and the number of deals went down by 19.86 per cent, 39.62 per cent, and 0.28 per cent apiece.

This was because investors traded 150.8 million stocks worth N3.2 billion in 3,553 deals compared with the 175.7 million stocks worth N5.3 billion traded in 3,563 deals last Friday.

UBA was the busiest stock as it traded 28.6 million units, with GTCO transacting 22.9 million units and Access Holdings selling 14.7 million units. Zenith Bank exchanged 12.6 million units, while Chams sold 5.5 million units.