Investors’ Wealth Rises N33bn as Rush for Banking Stocks Grows

By Dipo Olowookere

The sustained demand for banking stocks by investors caused transactions on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited to close 0.16 per cent higher on Thursday.

This made investors’ wealth swell by N33 billion as the market capitalisation of the exchange increased to N21.275 trillion from N21.242 trillion, while the All-Share Index (ASI) went up by 63.95 points to 40,829.15 points from 40,765.20 points.

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Business Post reports that FBN Holdings was the most traded stock at the session with the sale of 605.0 million units valued at N8.9 million, Fidelity Bank traded 20.6 million units worth N53.6 million, Wema Bank transacted 15.2 million units valued at N11.3 million, Ecobank exchanged 15.0 million units worth N88.9 million, while Transcorp traded 13.8 million units valued at N13.0 million.

At the close of business, a total of 812.3 million stocks worth N10.6 billion were transacted in 4,863 deals as against the 400.7 million stocks worth N3.5 billion traded in 5,145 deals at the midweek session.

This implied that the volume of shares traded by investors rose by 102.74 per cent, the value of the transactions went up by 203.95 per cent, while the number of deals went down by 5.48 per cent.

Investor sentiment, unlike the previous day, was positive yesterday as there were 24 price gainers and 20 price losers.

On top of the gainers’ chart was University Press, which gained 9.92 per cent to settle at N1.44 and was trailed by Presco, which rose by 5.92 per cent to N85.00.

Universal Insurance appreciated by 4.76 per cent to 22 kobo, Chams also improved by 4.76 per cent to close at 22 kobo, while UPDC appreciated by 3.65 per cent to sell at N1.99.

Conversely, BOS Gases topped the losers’ table after its equity price depreciated by 9.87 per cent to N10.50 and was followed by Caverton, which lost 9.71 per cent to trade at N1.58.

Axa Mansard went down by 5.22 per cent to N2.36, Courtville depreciated by 4.88 per cent to 39 kobo, while Sovereign Trust Insurance reduced by 4.35 per cent to 22 kobo.

It was observed that in terms of the sectorial performance, the insurance sector was the only decliner as it depreciated by 1.24 per cent on Thursday, while the energy counter closed flat.

The banking index appreciated by 0.70 per cent, the industrial goods sector improved by 0.08 per cent, while the consumer goods counter appreciated by 0.06 per cent.