Interests in Conoil, Ardova, Others Drive Stock Exchange’s 0.05% Growth

By Dipo Olowookere

Energy stocks at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited put up a sterling performance on Tuesday, influencing the 0.05 per cent growth recorded at the close of business.

At intraday, the market was down due to selling pressure on some consumer goods and banking equities, especially Nigerian Breweries and Access Holdings.

However, when the closing gong was beaten by 2:30 pm, interests in energy shares led by Conoil, Oando and Ardova lifted the bourse and prevented what could have been the first loss of the week.

Data obtained by Business Post showed that the energy counter appreciated by 1.12 per cent, the banking index rose by 0.12 per cent, and the industrial goods sector improved by 0.01 per cent, while the consumer goods and the insurance sectors went down by 0.73 per cent and 0.22 per cent, respectively.

Conoil jumped 10.00 per cent during the session to N48.40, Multiverse rose by 9.97 per cent to N3.75, John Holt increased by 9.77 per cent to N1.91, CWG appreciated by 9.66 per cent to N1.59, and Transcorp expanded by 9.50 per cent to N1.96.

On the flip side, Unity Bank suffered the heaviest loss on Tuesday as it shed 9.26 per cent to 49 Kobo, Japaul shrank by 8.82 per cent to 31 Kobo, Cutix dropped 8.80 per cent to N2.28, Nigerian Breweries slumped by 8.29 per cent to N32.10, and Academy Press dwindled by 5.71 per cent to N1.65.

It was observed that investor sentiment was still very strong as the market breadth was positive, with 32 appreciating stocks and 19 depreciating stocks.

This helped the All-Share Index (ASI) to its journey to the next level as it increased by 26.26 points to 52,605.78 points from 52,579.52 points, while the market capitalisation rose by N14 billion to N28.644 trillion from N28.630 trillion.

The activity chart was mixed yesterday as the trading volume jumped by 25.34 per cent to 641.0 million shares from 511.4 million shares, the trading value was flat at N7.1 billion, while the number of deals decreased by 3.38 per cent to 5,684 deals from 5,883 deals.

Access Holdings traded 129.7 million stocks worth N1.5 billion, UBA transacted 91.1 million stocks for N728.5 million, FBN Holdings exchanged 81.0 million equities valued at N969.5 million, Zenith Bank traded 42.8 million stocks worth N1.1 billion, and NEM Insurance sold 33.6 million equities for N153.1 million.