By Dipo Olowookere
Sanity was restored to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday, thanks to Dangote Cement and six other equities, which closed green.
The seven stocks halted the eighth-day losing streak on the exchange yesterday with a 0.78 per cent growth boosted by the industrial goods sector, which grew by 2.57 per cent and ended the session as the lone gainer.
Profit-taking persisted in the other sectors as the banking sector lost 2.98 per cent, the insurance counter dropped 2.93 per cent, the energy space fell by 0.90 per cent, while the consumer goods index declined by 0.32 per cent.
However, the performance of the industrial goods space led by Dangote Cement overpowered the threats of the bears and boosted the All-Share Index (ASI) by 318.29 points to 41,014.30 points from 40,696.01 points and then pushed the market capitalisation higher by N166 billion to N21.456 trillion from N21.290 trillion.
Business Post reports that Dangote Cement appreciated during the session by 7.04 per cent to settle at N228 per share, while Mutual Benefits Assurance grew by 5.41 per cent to end at 39 kobo per unit.
Furthermore, Sovereign Trust Insurance gained 3.70 per cent to finish at 28 kobo per share, Vitafoam rose by 3.33 per cent to sell for N9.30 per unit, while Unilever Nigeria moved up by 2.57 per cent to trade at N13.95 per share.
On the flip side, Linkage Assurance and Livestock Feeds topped the losers’ list of 46 members with a price depreciation of 10.00 per cent each to close at 54 kobo per unit and N2.25 per share respectively.
NAHCO slipped by 9.96 per cent to trade at N2.08 per unit, Northern Nigerian Flour Mills went down by 9.88 per cent to settle at N7.02 per share, while Portland Paints fell by 9.84 per cent to close at N2.84 per unit.
At the market yesterday, the level of activity improved as investors traded 1.3 billion stocks worth N6.4 billion in 6,573 deals compared with the previous day’s 366.9 million shares worth N5.5 billion traded in 5,718 deals.
This signified that the number of shares increased by 247.40 per cent, while the value of the equities grew by 16.68 per cent, with the number of deals rising by 14.95 per cent.
Business Post observed that the significantly high trading volume was buoyed by Livingtrust Mortgage Bank, which transacted 796.6 million units valued at N493.8 million.
Transcorp traded 55.8 million shares worth N50.5 million, FBN Holdings sold 51.9 million equities valued at N364.5 million, UBA exchanged 48.8 million stocks for N380.2 million, while Zenith Bank traded 37.1 million stocks worth N885.3 million.
