NGX Index Rises 0.03% on Improvement in Trades

By Dipo Olowookere

The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited further appreciated by 0.03 per cent on Tuesday on renewed interest of investors in local stocks.

Business Post reports that traders are beginning to purchase equities that could fetch them dividends in the coming days and weeks.

This was reflected in the activity chart as the five most active stocks were majorly dividend-paying shares, with United Capital trading 66.1 million units valued at N889.2 million.

Transcorp transacted 53.5 million shares worth N66.3 million, Zenith Bank exchanged 51.6 million stocks worth N1.4 billion, Fidelity Bank traded 44.4 million equities valued at N137.7 million, while Access Bank exchanged 26.8 million stocks valued at N278.0 million.

At the close of business, a total of 421.8 million shares worth N5.2 billion exchanged hands in 5,992 deals compared with the 421.5 million shares worth N4.2 billion transacted in 5,961 deals a day earlier, implying that the trading volume, value and number of deals increased by 0.09 per cent, 22.14 per cent and 0.52 per cent respectively.

There were 29 price gainers at the market yesterday led by Niger Insurance and Learn Africa, which gained 10.00 per cent each to settle at 22 kobo and N2.42 apiece.

SCOA Nigeria rose by 9.79 per cent to N2.58, Cutix appreciated by 9.65 per cent to sell for N2.84, while May and Baker also improved by 9.65 per cent to settle at N5.00.

On the flip side, the exchange closed the session with 18 price losers led by Ellah Lakes, which fell by 9.88 per cent to trade at N3.83 and was followed by Veritas Kapital, which lost 8.00 per cent to sell for 23 kobo.

Courteville went down by 5.56 per cent to 51 kobo, Guinness Nigeria shed 5.34 per cent to close at N70.05, while Neimeth depreciated by 4.76 per cent to N1.80.

Unlike the previous day, the five key sectors of the bourse closed mixed with the industrial goods and energy indices closing slightly higher by 0.02 per cent and 0.01 per cent respectively and the insurance, consumer goods and banking counters depreciating by 0.61 per cent, 0.40 per cent and 0.08 per cent respectively.

But at 2:30 pm, when the closing gong was struck to signify the end of trading for the session, the All-Share Index (ASI) was up by 12.99 points to finish at 47,246.90 points versus Monday’s 47,233.91 points, while the market capitalisation was up by N7 billion to close at N25.464 trillion compared with N25.457 trillion it ended a day earlier.