Economy
NGX All-Share Index Crawls Back into 140,000-point Region After 0.41% Rise
By Dipo Olowookere
A 0.41 per cent rise recorded by the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Wednesday returned its benchmark performance indicator, the All-Share Index (ASI), into the 140,000-point region.
Data from Customs Street indicated the ASI gained 569.25 points to 140,365.36 points from 139,796.11 points, and the market capitalisation increased by N361 trillion to settle at N88.814 trillion from the previous day’s N88.453 trillion.
The bourse witnessed bargain-hunting across the major sectors yesterday, with the industrial goods space growing by 1.64 per cent, the energy counter rising by 1.33 per cent, the commodity industry expanding by 0.62 per cent, the insurance space soaring by 0.11 per cent, the banking index increasing by 0.01 per cent, and the consumer goods sector chalking up 0.01 per cent.
The duo of Chellaram and FTN Cocoa surged by 10.00 per cent each during the session to trade at N12.10 and N5.94 apiece, as Berger Paints gained 9.86 per cent to quote at N39.00, Sunu Assurances went up by 8.91 cent to N5.99, and Livestock Feeds jumped by 8.11 per cent to N8.00.
On the flip side, May and Baker lost 9.97 per cent to close at N16.25, Union Dicon slipped by 9.72 per cent to N9.75, C&I Leasing depreciated by 7.69 per cent to N6.00, Thomas Wyatt went down by 7.04 per cent to N2.51, and Deap Capital shrank by 6.52 per cent to N1.72.
The activity chart was led by FCMB at midweek after it traded 287.8 million shares for N3.2 billion, Nigerian Breweries sold 50.5 million equities worth N3.5 billion, Aradel Holdings exchanged 43.4 million stocks valued at N23.0 billion, Access Holdings transacted 40.3 million equities worth N1.1 billion, and Zenith Bank exchanged 29.1 million stocks for N1.9 billion.
When transactions closed for the session, a total of 767.7 million shares worth N40.6 billion exchanged hands in 24,837 deals, in contrast to the 659.2 million shares worth N12.5 billion transacted in 25,334 deals in the preceding day, showing a leap in the trading volume and value by 16.46 per cent and 224.80 per cent, respectively, and a fall in the number of deals by 1.96 per cent.
