Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
Despite recording low investors participation, the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited rebounded on Tuesday by 0.07 per cent mainly due to the repurchase of stocks offloaded a day earlier.
When the market opened for trading for the week on Monday, investors sold off Lafarge Africa, GTCO and others but yesterday, they quickly got them back because of the value they could offer in the short term, especially GTCO, which is expected to release it half-year numbers shortly.
The bargain-hunting helped the market to regain its feet, though investor sentiment was slightly low as there were 17 price gainers and 18 price losers at the close of business.
However, this did not stop the All-Share Index (ASI) from rising by 25.99 points to settle at 39,460.68 points compared with Monday’s 39,434.69 points. Also, the market capitalisation improved by N14 billion to N20.560 trillion from N20.546 trillion.
Data from the exchange showed that Morison Industries closed the session as the best-performing stock with a price appreciation of 10.00 per cent to N1.54.
Regency Alliance grew by 9.52 per cent to 46 kobo, Tripple Gee gained 9.09 per cent to sell at 96 kobo, Consolidated Hallmark Insurance rose by 8.51 per cent to 51 kobo, while Jaiz Bank closed 6.90 per cent higher to quote at 62 kobo.
At the other end, FTN Cocoa gave up its previous day’s gains to trade at 40 kobo after losing 9.09 per cent. Courtville went down by 8.82 per cent to 31 kobo, Sovereign Trust Insurance lost 8.00 per cent to trade at 23 kobo, UAC Nigeria depreciated by 6.55 per cent to N10.70, while Multiverse fell by 4.76 per cent to 20 kobo.
Business Post reports that during the session, a total of 196.8 million stocks worth N1.5 billion were traded in 3,881 deals in contrast to the 211.3 million stocks worth N2.0 billion transacted in 3,939 deals on Monday, indicating a decline in the trading volume, value and number of deals by 6.87 per cent, 28.37 per cent and 1.47 per cent respectively.
At the close of the trades, Courtville finished as the most active stock with the sale of 22.5 million units valued at N7.3 million, followed by Sovereign Trust Insurance with 21.3 million units worth N5.1 million.
Wema Bank transacted 16.9 million shares worth N14.6 million, UBA traded 15.5 million equities valued at N116.9 million, while GBN Holdings exchanged 10.8 million stocks for N80.6 million.
In terms of the performance of the five major sectors of the market, it swayed to the green territory as three closed higher, with the industrial goods, banking and consumer goods counters rising by 0.13 per cent, 0.12 per cent and 0.08 per cent respectively, while the insurance and energy sectors lost 0.43 per cent and 0.19 per cent apiece.
