Investors’ Portfolios Swell by N241bn as NGX Index Rises 0.42%

By Dipo Olowookere

The upward movement at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited witnessed in recent times continued on Wednesday with a 0.42 per cent appreciation.

The domestic bourse finished higher at midweek on the back of sustained buying pressure from investors, who have shown renewed interest in local equities.

Data indicated that the energy sector gained 3.27 per cent, the consumer goods index appreciated by 0.50 per cent and the industrial goods space rose by 0.03 per cent.

However, the financial services landscape suffered a loss yesterday due to profit-taking, leaving the banking space down by 0.70 per cent and the insurance counter down by 0.35 per cent.

The selling pressure in that ecosystem did not affect the outcome of the market during the session, as the All-Share Index (ASI) went up by 418.83 points to settle at 98,987.42 points compared with the preceding day’s 98,568.59 points and the market capitalisation grew by N241 billion to close at N56.882 trillion versus Tuesday’s N56.641 trillion.

A look at the activity log showed that investors transacted 603.3 million stocks valued at N12.6 billion in 9,723 deals, in contrast to the 763.0 million stocks worth N11.8 billion traded in 12,081 deals in the previous trading day, representing an improvement in the trading value by 6.78 per cent and a decline in the trading volume and number of deals by 20.93 per cent and 19.52 per cent.

Fidelity Bank was the busiest equity during the session with the sale of 121.7 million units for N2.1 billion, FBN Holdings traded 108.8 million units worth N3.5 billion, Transcorp transacted 82.6 million units valued at N919.9 million, UBA exchanged 41.9 million units worth N1.1 billion, and AXA Mansard traded 24.6 million units valued at N146.1 million.

Business Post reports that investor sentiment was bullish yesterday after 31 shares closed in green and 24 shares ended in red, implying a positive market breadth index.

Flour Mills and Seplat were the best-performing stocks at midweek after chalking up 10.00 per cent each to close at N60.50 and N4,103.10, respectively, Ellah Lakes rose by 9.97 per cent to N4.08, Honeywell Flour appreciated by 9.87 per cent to N5.01, and ABC Transport gained 9.57 per cent to trade at N1.26.

On the flip side, Multiverse finished the session as the worst-performing stock after losing 9.90 per cent to sell for N9.10, Caverton shed 9.86 per cent to N3.29, AXA Mansard declined by 6.78 per cent to N5.50, FBN Holdings crashed by 6.45 per cent to N29.00, and Fidelity Bank retreated by 6.40 per cent to N15.35.