By Dipo Olowookere
The last trading session before Christmas on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited ended on a positive note on Friday, December 23, 2022.
This was because the bourse appreciated further by 0.42 per cent at the close of transactions, buoyed by sustained buying interest in mid and large-cap stocks listed on the platform.
This cemented the grip of the bulls on the equity exchange yesterday, with the market breadth ending bullish, with 30 price gainers and 10 price losers, indicating a very strong investor sentiment.
Geregu Power was the best-performing stock during the session as it rose by 10.00 per cent to settle at N115.50, while Thomas Wyatt improved by 9.46 per cent to 81 Kobo. SCOA Nigeria increased its value by 9.09 per cent to 84 Kobo, Honeywell Flour appreciated by 8.96 per cent to N2.31, and Coronation Insurance gained 7.89 per cent to close at 41 Kobo.
The worst-performing stock for the session was Consolidated Hallmark Insurance, which lost 7.69 per cent to finish at 60 Kobo. Chams fell by 4.35 per cent to 22 Kobo, Cornerstone Insurance dropped 3.85 per cent to 50 Kobo, Mutual Benefits went down by 3.57 per cent to 27 Kobo, and International Breweries declined by 2.22 per cent to N4.40.
A look at the performance of the key sectors of the market showed that the consumer goods space witnessed profit-taking while the others recorded bargain-hunting, with the banking counter rising by 1.46 per cent. The insurance sector appreciated by 1.10 per cent, the energy index grew by 0.36 per cent, and the industrial goods sector improved by 0.25 per cent.
Consequently, the All-Share Index (ASI) closed higher by 206.66 points to 49,706.09 points from 49,499.43 points, while the market capitalisation increased by N113 billion to N27.074 trillion from N26.961 trillion.
The busiest stock on Friday was UPDC REIT, which transacted 50.4 million units, and was trailed by Geregu Power, which traded 12.9 million units. UAC Nigeria exchanged 10.5 million units, MTN Nigeria sold 8.2 million units, and Access Holdings traded 6.4 million units.
In all, investors transacted 140.4 million stocks worth N4.0 billion in 2,063 deals, in contrast to the 132.6 million stocks worth N3.1 billion traded in 2,999 deals the prior day. This implied that the trading volume and the trading value appreciated by 5.88 per cent, and 29.03 per cent, respectively, while the number of deals decreased by 31.21 per cent.
Adedapo Adesanya