By Dipo Olowookere
After closing flat for two straight sessions, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Friday bounced back to finish 1.11 per cent higher.
The growth was influenced by buying pressure across the major sub-sectors of the market tracked, especially in the banking space, which appreciated by 4.47 per cent.
The consumer goods sector grew by 1.29 per cent, the energy counter improved by 1.08 per cent, the insurance industry increased by 0.63 per cent, while the industrial goods index rose by 0.34 per cent.
At the close of business, the All-Share Index (ASI) moved up by 315.41 points to 28,659.45 points from 28,344.04 points, while the market capitalisation went up by N165 billion to N14.980 trillion from N14.815 trillion.
Business Post reports that the market breadth, which measures investor sentiment, was positive today as there were 30 price gainers and 11 price losers, with 17 closing flat.
Leading the gainers’ chart was Total Nigeria, which added N10.20 to its equity price to settle at N112.20 per unit and was trailed by Presco, which rose by N5.40 to finish at N65.90 per unit.
Zenith Bank appreciated by N1.55 to close at N21.55 per share, NASCON improved by 90 kobo to end at N13 per unit, while GTBank gained 85 kobo to finish at N30.35 per share.
On the losers’ table, Eterna picked the top spot after losing 39 kobo to settle at N4.90 per share and was followed by eTranzact, which fell by 18 kobo to close at N1.73 per unit.
Cutix also depreciated by 18 kobo to finish at N1.62 per share, Fidson lost 6 kobo to end at N3.50 per share, while the value of Union Bank went down by 5 kobo to N4.95 each.
During the session, the value of shares transacted by investors decreased by 6.34 per cent to N4.7 billion from N5.0 billion, while the volume of stocks traded rose by 42.93 per cent to 489.1 million units from 342.2 million units, with the number of deals rising by 39.62 per cent to 5,652 from 4,048.
Much of the trades were done on banking equities with UBA emerging the most attractive, trading 100.2 million units valued at N696.3 million.
Zenith Bank exchanged 73.9 million shares for N1.6 billion, FBN Holdings traded 54.2 million stocks worth N344.0 million, Fidelity Bank sold 34.6 million equities valued at N70.9 million, while investors traded 29.2 million Access Bank shares for N230.0 million.
