By Dipo Olowookere
The rush for Conoil, MRS Oil and Oando shares by investors helped the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited close marginally higher by 0.03 per cent on Friday.
Business Post reports that investor sentiment remained bullish during the session as there were 30 price gainers and 26 price losers, indicating a positive market breadth index.
Stanbic IBTC topped the gainers’ log after it closed higher by 10.00 per cent to N44.00, MRS Oil increased by 9.92 per cent to N49.30, Conoil expanded by 9.73 per cent to N69.90, Eterna gained 9.47 per cent to trade at N9.25, and PZ Cussons rose by 8.82 per cent to N18.50.
On the flip side, FTN Cocoa topped the losers’ table after it dropped 9.59 per cent to close at 66 Kobo, UPDC declined by 8.93 per cent to N1.02, Chams went down by 8.89 per cent to 41 Kobo, Mutual Benefits shrank by 7.69 per cent to 36 Kobo, and Sterling Bank depreciated by 7.56 per cent to N2.08.
The energy counter appreciated yesterday by 2.15 per cent, the insurance index rose by 0.38 per cent, the consumer goods grew by 0.09 per cent, while the banking and the industrial goods sectors went down by 1.55 per cent, and 0.05 per cent, respectively.
The All-Share Index (ASI), at the close of transactions, increased by 14.57 points to 55,822.82 points from 55,808.25 points, and the market capitalisation moved up by N8 billion to N30.396 trillion from N30.388 trillion.
The volume of trades on Friday increased by 16.81 per cent to 455.8 million units from 390.2 million, the value of transactions inflated by 7.02 per cent to N6.1 billion from N5.7 billion, while the number of deals depreciated by 3.47 per cent to 7,457 deals from 7,725 deals.
FBN Holdings sold 102.8 million shares worth N1.4 billion, Access Holdings traded 55.7 million equities valued at N678.9 million, UBA transacted 48.8 million stocks worth N464.9 million, Zenith Bank exchanged 21.9 million shares valued at N627.6 million, and Fidelity Bank sold 18.2 million for N104.7 million.
