By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited finished strong on Thursday as it appreciated by 1.10 per cent on the back of sustained bargain hunting by investors.
Consequently, the All-Share Index (ASI) went up by 454.40 points to 41,704.11 points from 41,249.71 points, while the market capitalisation rose by N238 billion to N21.764 trillion from N21.526 trillion it finished on Wednesday.
Business Post reports that the activity chart was weak yesterday as a total of 216.2 million shares worth N3.4 billion were traded in 4,272 deals as against the 499.5 million shares worth N5.1 billion transacted in 5,998 deals a day earlier.
This indicated that the volume of shares bought and sold at the session depreciated by 56.72 per cent, the value of the stocks went down by 33.43 per cent and the number of deals fell by 28.78 per cent.
Like in the previous trading day, FBN Holdings was the most traded stock with the sale of 51.9 million units valued at N628.3 million as Ecobank traded 20.0 million units worth N143.7 million.
Transcorp exchanged 14.7 million equities valued at N15.0 million, Access Bank transacted 13.0 million stocks worth N124.2 million, while Fidelity Bank sold 12.5 million shares for N34.2 million.
It was observed that on Thursday, three cross deals were recorded with MTN opening the market with the exchange of about 2 million units of its stocks at N172.00 each, while Airtel Africa witnessed the transfer of over 900,000 units at N770.00 each, with about 100,000 units of Nestle Nigeria’s shares crossed at N1,405.00 each.
A cross deal is the practice of the exchange of stocks between a buyer and a seller through a broker at an agreed price on the exchange.
A total of 23 equities were on the gainers’ chart yesterday with Cutix leading after its value went higher by the maximum rise of 10.00 per cent to settle at N5.50.
NGX Group rose by 9.79 per cent to N23.55, Consolidated Hallmark Insurance grew by 9.09 per cent to 60 kobo, Nigerian Breweries appreciated by 7.41 per cent to N51.45, while BUA Cement gained 6.12 per cent to sell for N72.00.
Conversely, 19 stocks finished on the losers’ log led by the Initiates, which fell by 8.51 per cent to trade at 43 kobo, followed by Neimeth, which lost 4.86 per cent to quote at N1.76.
Furthermore, Universal Insurance depreciated by 4.76 per cent to close at 20 kobo, NAHCO depleted by 3.61 per cent to N3.47, while Unity Bank went down by 3.51 per cent to 55 kobo.
In terms of the performance of the sectors, the energy space was down by 0.36 per cent while the industrial goods, insurance, consumer goods and banking counters appreciated by 2.16 per cent, 1.56 per cent, 1.45 per cent and 0.17 per cent respectively.
