Honeywell Flour, NEM Insurance Drive Domestic Equity Market by 0.70%

By Dipo Olowookere

The domestic equity market appreciated by 0.70 per cent on Monday on the back of the gains posted by Honeywell Flour Mills, NEM Insurance and 32 others.

They made nonsense of the losses printed by Prestige Assurance and 15 other stocks, resulting in a positive market breadth index and very strong investor sentiment.

Data showed that Honeywell Flour and NEM Insurance gained 10.00 per cent each to trade at N3.74 and N6.05, respectively, as Dangote Sugar rose by 9.97 per cent to N61.20, NASCO expanded by 9.92 per cent to N57.60, and Wema Bank grew by 9.79 per cent to N7.85.

Conversely, Prestige Assurance depleted by 10.00 per cent to 54 Kobo, Lasaco Assurance shed 9.83 per cent to N2.11, UAC Nigeria lost 9.68 per cent to trade at N12.60, RT Briscoe fell by 8.16 per cent to 45 Kobo, and International Energy Insurance depreciated by 7.74 per cent to N1.55.

Business Post reports that the energy space crashed by 0.32 per cent today, while the other sectors closed in the green territory.

The banking index appreciated by 3.02 per cent, the insurance counter gained by 1.87 per cent, the consumer goods space improved by 0.85 per cent, and the industrial goods sector expanded by 0.74 per cent.

When trading activities ended on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Monday, the All-Share Index (ASI) went up by 713.99 points to 102,044.84 points from 101,330.85 points and the market capitalisation surged by N403 billion to N57.697 trillion from N57.294 trillion.

A total of 436.9 million stocks valued at N17.1 billion exchanged hands in 11,344 deals during the trading session, in contrast to the 358.1 million shares valued at N19.9 billion transacted in 10,786 deals last Friday, showing an improvement in the trading volume and the number of deals by 22.01 per cent and 5.17 per cent, respectively, while the trading value went down by 14.07 per cent.

GTCO closed the day as the most active stock after it sold 96.6 million units for N4.0 billion, Transcorp traded 73.9 million units worth N1.2 billion, Access Holdings exchanged 48.1 million units valued at N988.4 million, UBA transacted 21.6 million units worth N497.3 million, and NASCO traded 19.6 million units valued at N1.1 billion.