Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
The value of equities listed on the local exchange increased by N709 billion or 4.92 per cent on Tuesday to N15.111 trillion from N14.402 trillion on Monday.
This significant growth in a single trading session was influenced by the renewed confidence in the stock market by domestic investors, who have remained very active at the market since the exit of the foreign portfolio investors early this year.
When the global health crisis, Coronavirus, found its way to Nigeria in late February and threatened the economy in March, offshore investors quickly pulled the plug, fearing the worse for the country.
However, the strategies adopted by the management of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), especially the remote trading, helped the market to remain active and this gave local investors the confidence the continue normal business transactions on the exchange.
Yesterday, the strong appetite for domestic equities buoyed the 1,354.88 points rise recorded by the All-Share Index (ASI), which closed the session at 28,909.37 points as against the previous day’s 27,554.49 points.
From the analysis of the sectorial performance by Business Post, the banking sector recorded the highest growth, rising by 7.48 per cent, while the industrial goods sector followed with a 5.64 per cent growth.
The consumer goods counter appreciated by 2.95 per cent, the energy industry improved by 1.15 per cent, while the insurance counter gained 0.26 per cent.
On the price movement chart, the stock exchange closed with 45 price gainers yesterday as against the eight price losers recorded.
On top of the gainers’ table were Dangote Cement, which appreciated by N14.20 to close at N158.20 per share, and MTN Nigeria, which grew by N7.70 to sell for N142.70 per share.
In addition, Presco appreciated by N5.50 to finish at N60.50 per unit, Nigerian Breweries rose by N3.50 to close at N52.30 per share, while Stanbic IBTC gained N2 to end at N42.50 per share.
On the losers’ log, Berger Paints claimed the top spot after going down by 40 kobo to trade at N6.10 per unit and was closely followed by NPF Microfinance Bank, which lost 12 kobo to sell at N1.25 per share.
Neimeth depreciated by 10 kobo to trade at N1.85 per unit, Red Star Express went down by 5 kobo to N3.25 per share, while Wapic Insurance fell by 3 kobo to 36 kobo per unit.
A look at the activity chart showed that a total of 749.5 million stocks worth N9.5 billion exchanged hands in 8,075 deals on Tuesday compared with the 603.9 million shares worth N7.4 billion transacted in 5,984 deals on Monday.
This indicated growth in the trading volume, value and number of deals by 24.10 per cent, 27.89 per cent and 34.94 per cent respectively.
Business Post observed that the heavy transactions on Zenith Bank shares seen lately continued yesterday as the lender was the most attractive to investors, selling 135.7 million units valued at N2.8 billion.
UBA traded 112.9 million equities worth N768.2 million, FBN Holdings transacted 89.9 million shares for N544.4 million, Access Bank exchanged 56.0 million units worth N426.3 million, while GTBank traded 40.1 million stocks valued at N1.2 billion.
