By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited closed higher by 0.19 per cent on Friday on sustained bullish sentiment influenced by the demand for financial, consumer goods and industrial goods stocks.
The growth posted by domestic equities during the session was across the key sectors of the exchange as the consumer goods index rose by 1.39 per cent, the banking counter gained 1.34, the insurance space appreciated by 0.98, the energy sector grew by 0.79, while the industrial goods index improved by 0.13 per cent.
Consequently, the All-Share Index (ASI) gained 99.08 points to close at 50,935.03 points in contrast to Thursday’s 50,835.95 points, while the market capitalisation rose by N54 billion to finish at N27.460 trillion as against the preceding day’s N27.406 trillion.
Livingtrust Mortgage Bank was the most transacted equity yesterday at the exchange, trading 88.6 million units valued at N99.2 million and was trailed by Transcorp, which sold 40.5 million units worth N48.3 million.
Fidelity Bank traded 30.4 million shares for N112.0 million, Courteville transacted 29.6 million stocks worth N14.8 million, while Zenith Bank exchanged 24.1 million equities valued at N588.7 million.
At the close of trades, a total of 466.3 million shares worth N5.3 billion exchanged hands in 7,442 deals compared with the 462.6 million shares worth N8.3 billion traded in 6,801 deals a day earlier, indicating a 0.80 per cent increase in the trading volume, a 9.43 per cent rise in the number of deals and a 36.08 per cent decline in the trading value.
The investor sentiment was very strong on Friday as the market breadth closed positive with 44 appreciating equities and 14 depreciating equities.
Caverton gained 10.00 per cent to trade at N1.32, Champion Breweries rose by 9.87 per cent to N3.34, Learn Africa improved by 9.81 per cent to N2.35, International Breweries appreciated by 9.76 per cent to N6.75, while Cadbury Nigeria gained 9.72 per cent to finish at N13.55.
Conversely, Livingtrust Mortgage Bank finished the session on top of the losers’ chart with a price depreciation of 9.68 per cent to sell at N1.12, CWG dropped 6.25 per cent to trade at 90 kobo, Stanbic IBTC went down by 61.7 per cent to N34.20, Ikeja Hotel declined by 5.19 per cent to N1.28, while Veritas Kapital retreated by 4.55 per cent to 21 kobo.
