By Dipo Olowookere
The interim dividend proposed by the board of Total Nigeria and the news of the settlement of the dispute between Oando Plc and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is starting to drive appetite for the two energy stocks at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited.
Business Post reports that appetite for Total Nigeria shares persisted on Friday and this helped the market to close 0.21 per cent higher when trading activities were ended during the session.
This buying pressure increased the All-Share Index (ASI) of the bourse by 82.38 points to 38,667.90 points from 38,585.52 points and expanded the market capitalisation by N43 billion to N20.147 trillion from N20.104 trillion.
Universal Insurance was the best-performing stock at the last trading session of this week, appreciating by 10.00 per cent to close at 22 kobo.
Oando gained 9.97 per cent to trade at N3.97, Total Nigeria grew by 9.96 per cent to N203.20, Cutix improved by 9.82 per cent to N4.81, while Guinness Nigeria appreciated by 9.14 per cent to N31.65.
However, University Press finished the session as the worst-performing equity with a price depreciation of 9.03 per cent to settle at N1.41.
Champion Breweries lost 8.89 per cent to sell for N2.05, Red Star Express declined by 3.03 per cent to N3.20, International Breweries went down by 2.80 per cent to N5.20, while NAHCO fell by 2.65 per cent to N2.20.
At the close of transactions, the market breadth remained strongly positive with 30 price gainers and 11 price losers.
On the activity chart, the trading volume rose by 13.36 per cent to 230.3 million shares from 203.1 million shares, the trading value appreciated by 34.04 per cent to N2.3 billion from N1.7 billion, while the number of deals increased by 4.18 per cent to 4,135 deals from 3,969 deals.
Fidelity Bank closed the day as the most traded stock for transacting 24.8 million shares valued at N59.4 million and was followed by Zenith Bank, which exchanged 24.3 million equities worth N604.1 million.
United Capital transacted 14.5 million shares worth N102.6 million, UBA traded 11.0 million shares valued at N85.3 million, while Sovereign Trust Insurance transacted 10.4 million stocks for N2.9 million.
In terms of the performance of the sectors, apart from the insurance counter, which depreciated marginally by 0.01 per cent, the four other major sectors closed positive.
The energy index maintained its strong position with an appreciation of 3.98 per cent, the banking counter rose by 0.51 per cent, the consumer goods space rose by 0.40 per cent, while the industrial goods sector appreciated by 0.04 per cent.
