By Dipo Olowookere
It was a positive start to a new month for the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Wednesday, July 1, 2020, as the bourse rebounded by 0.47 percent after the previous day’s loss.
Gains in the industrial goods stocks like BUA Cement and Lafarge Africa as well as Cadbury Nigeria in the consumer goods sector supported the market yesterday, ensuring that the losses by 22 stocks did not affect the overall performance of the exchange, which printed only 12 gainers.
Data sourced by Business Post from the NSE indicated that the banking sector depreciated by 0.88 percent, followed by the insurance index, which fell by 0.79 percent, and the consumer goods industry, which went down by 0.47 percent.
However, the industrial goods counter appreciated by 1.35 percent, while the oil/gas space moved up by 0.30 percent at the session.
At the close transactions for the day, the benchmark index, which is the All-Share Index (ASI), increased by 155.89 points to 24,595.05 points from 24,479.16 points.
In the same vein, the market capitalisation, which indicates the total value of stocks on the exchange, increased by N60 billion to N12.830 trillion from N12.770 trillion.
At the market yesterday, the activity chart was in red following the 29.45 percent decline in the volume of shares traded by investors to 198.0 million from 280.7 million.
Equally, the value of stocks exchanged by market participants reduced by 66.98 percent to N1.0 billion from N3.1 billion, while the number of deals declined by 15.50 percent to 3,772 deals from 4,464 deals.
Wapic Insurance was the most active stock at the midweek session with 30.3 million units of its equities traded for N11.2 million.
UPDC REIT transacted 22.8 million shares for N79.7 million, UBA traded 20.2 million stocks worth N123.5 million, Transcorp exchanged 19.4 million equities valued at N12.8 million, while Chams traded 11.7 million stocks for N2.6 million.
The highest price gainer of the day was BUA Cement, rising by N3.30 to settle at N42 per share and was trailed by Cadbury Nigeria, which gained 65 kobo to sell at N7.40 per unit.
In addition, Lafarge Africa appreciated by 50 kobo to trade at N10.50 per unit, Sterling Bank gained 12 kobo to quote at N1.37 per share, while PZ Cussons grew by 10 kobo to close at N4.10 per share.
At the other end, MTN Nigeria ended the trading day as the heaviest price decliner, depreciating by N1.50 to finish at N116 per share.
Guinness Nigeria depreciated by 50 kobo to close at N14 per unit, Zenith Bank dropped 40 kobo to trade at N15.70 per unit, Flour Mills decreased by 35 kobo to N18.65 per share, while Dangote Sugar reduced by 30 kobo to close at N11.70 per unit.
Modupe Gbadeyanka