Linkage Assurance, PZ Close as Best-Performing Stocks

By Dipo Olowookere

On Thursday, Linkage Assurance and PZ Cussons were the best-performing stocks at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited.

The two equities were among the 19 price gainers recorded at the trading session, which outweighed the 15 price losers, making the stock market to further rise by 0.10 per cent at the close of transactions.

Business Post reports that during the trading day, Linkage Assurance appreciated by 9.09 per cent to 60 kobo, with PZ Cussons growing by 7.14 per cent to N6.00.

Also, Chams improved by 5.00 per cent to 21 kobo, May & Baker gained 5.00 per cent to sell for N4.20, while Unilever Nigeria improved by 4.96 per cent to N12.70.

On the losers’ log, CWG was on top after its share price went down by 9.60 per cent to N1.13. Consolidated Hallmark Insurance reduced by 8.97 per cent to 71 kobo, ABC Transport dropped 7.50 per cent to 37 kobo, Coronation Insurance fell by 6.78 per cent to 55 kobo, while Mutual Benefits Assurance lost 6.52 per cent to close at 43 kobo.

On the activity chart, the number of deals increased by 3.51 per cent to 3,330 deals from 3,217 deals, while the volume of shares reduced by 12.76 per cent to 158.4 million units from 181.5 million units just as the value of shares decreased by 43.52 per cent to N2.2 billion from N4.0 billion.

For another trading session, Zenith Bank was the most traded stock with the sale of 27.3 million equities worth N629.2 million, trailed by Sterling Bank, which exchanged 22.0 million stocks worth N35.1 million.

UBA transacted 21.7 million shares valued at N154.2 million, Transcorp traded 9.2 million equities valued at N8.2 million, while Chams sold 8.3 million stocks worth N1.7 million.

In terms of the performance of the key sectors of the market, the insurance and industrial goods sectors were down by 1.04 per cent and 0.01 per cent respectively, while the banking and consumer goods counters closed higher by 0.52 per cent and 0.44 per cent apiece with the energy index closing flat.

When trading activities were wrapped up for the day, the All-Share Index (ASI) was up by 39.15 points to 39,210.10 points from 39,170.95 points, while the market capitalisation was up by N20 billion to N20.437 trillion from N20.417 trillion.