Equities Maintain Uptrend, Appreciate by N93bn

By Dipo Olowookere

The positive momentum seen at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited continued on Friday as equities closed 0.46 per cent higher.

Buying interests in MTN Nigeria, Dangote Cement, GTBank and others ensured that the stock market maintained its uptrend and investors hope this continues next week.

At the last trading session of the week, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 177.86 points to 38,726.10 points from 38,548.24 points, while the market capitalisation increased by N93 billion to N20.185 trillion from N20.092 trillion.

Business Post reports that apart from the insurance sector which went down by 0.56 per cent, every other index appreciated with the industrial goods counter rising by 1.00 per cent.

The banking space appreciated by 0.33 per cent, the energy sector improved by 0.06 per cent, while the consumer goods index appreciated by 0.04 per cent.

Yesterday, there were 22 price gainers and 10 price losers and on the risers’ table, Morison Industries claimed the top spot after its price rose by 9.71 per cent to N1.13.

Veritas Kapital appreciated by 9.09 per cent to close at 24 kobo, University Press rose by 9.09 per cent to N1.68, NPF Microfinance Bank gained 6.59 per cent to trade at N1.78, while Honeywell Flour appreciated by 6.03 per cent to quote at N1.23.

On the decliners’ table, CWG occupied the top position after its share price went down by 9.47 per cent to N1.53 and was followed by Regency Alliance, which lost 9.09 per cent to sell for 50 kobo.

Royal Exchange declined by 7.69 per cent to 72 kobo, Lasaco Assurance went down by 6.71 per cent to N1.39, while Africa Prudential depreciated by 4.84 per cent to N5.90.

On the activity chart, Sovereign Trust Insurance was the most active with the sale of 31.8 million units valued at N8.4 million, with FCMB following for trading 28.3 million shares valued at N90.5 million.

Royal Exchange exchanged 10.9 million equities worth N7.8 million, Fidelity Bank traded 10.3 million stocks worth N23.1 million, while Regency Alliance transacted 9.7 million shares valued at N5.0 million.

In all, a total of 199.1 million stocks worth N1.6 billion were transacted in 3,150 deals compared with the 249.7 million shares worth N1.9 billion traded in 3,524 deals on Thursday, indicating declines in the trading volume by 20.27 per cent, trading value by 15.20 per cent and the number of deals by 10.61 per cent.