Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
Infinity Trust Mortgage Bank ended Thursday’s trading session as the best-performing stock on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited after it joined forces with 25 others to stretch the gains of the local bourse by 0.22 per cent at the close of transactions.
The small lender has been gaining traction at the exchange lately and yesterday, the strong buying interest persisted, further chalking up 9.83 per cent to close at N2.57.
A quick insight into the gainers’ chart showed that John Holt appreciated by 9.73 per cent during the session to finish at N2.03, Ikeja Hotel rose by 9.20 per cent to N4.75, DAAR Communications improved by 7.69 per cent to 42 Kobo, and eTranzact also grew by 7.69 per cent to N7.00.
On the flip side, RT Briscoe ended as the worst-performing stock after it dropped 9.84 per cent to 55 Kobo, UPDC REIT declined by 9.78 per cent to N4.15, Mutual Benefits slumped by 9.43 per cent to 48 Kobo, Omatek fell by 7.79 per cent to 71 Kobo, and Sovereign Trust Insurance retreated by 7.69 per cent to 36 Kobo.
A total of 27 equities ended on the laggards’ chart yesterday, indicating a negative market breadth index and a weak investor sentiment because of the 26 price advancers.
Banking equities continued to attract attention at the NGX, as its index gained 1.90 per cent on Thursday, followed by the energy and industrial goods sectors, which rose by 0.02 per cent each, as the consumer goods space closed higher by 0.01 per cent, while the insurance counter went down by 1.94 per cent.
When the closing bell sounded at 2:30 pm, the All-Share Index (ASI) was up by 156.04 points to 72,455.83 points from 72,299.79 points and the market capitalisation was up by N85 billion to N39.649 trillion from 39.564 trillion.
As for the activity log, it was mixed during the trading day after the trading value went down by 9.88 per cent, the trading volume rose by 3.09 per cent and the number of deals shot up by 2.93 per cent.
Investors transacted 446.6 million shares valued at N7.3 billion in 6,845 deals compared with the 433.2 million shares valued at N8.1 billion exchanged in 6,650 deals a day earlier.
Access Holdings traded 77.3 million equities worth N1.8 billion to lead the chart, FCMB followed with the sale of 45.2 million stocks for N318.6 million, Zenith Bank exchanged 37.3 million shares valued at N1.4 billion, UBA transacted 29.3 million equities worth N724.1 million, and Fidelity Bank traded 27.5 million shares valued at N257.3 million.
