By Dipo Olowookere
The return of interim dividend hunters to the market further pushed the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited higher by 0.02 per cent at the close of transactions on Friday.
It was the first trading session of the new month of July 2022 and investors are expecting half-year results of companies on the exchange, especially those in the banking space, the tier-1 specifically, which usually declare interim dividends.
Business Post observed that there were buying interests in Access Holdings and Zenith Bank, though GTCO and UBA came under selling pressure, which depleted their share prices.
But when the market closed for the session, the All-Share Index (ASI) was higher by 12.08 points as it ended at 51,829.67 points compared with the previous day’s 51,817.59 points.
In the same vein, the total value of equities on the platform increased by N7 billion to N27.942 trillion from the N27.935 trillion it closed a day earlier.
The investor sentiment remained positive as there were 16 depreciating stocks and 20 appreciating stocks led by The Initiates, which rose by 10.00 per cent to 44 Kobo. Cutix expanded by 9.78 per cent to N2.47, Linkage Assurance moved higher by 9.62 per cent to 57 Kobo, John Holt grew by 9.33 per cent to 82 Kobo, while Caverton chalked up 8.82 per cent to sell for N1.11.
On the flip side, Courteville lost 7.84 per cent to trade at 47 Kobo, NAHCO fell by 5.88 per cent to N8.00, Cadbury Nigeria went down by 5.51 per cent to N16.30, Neimeth declined by 3.87 per cent to N1.49, while UPDC went down by 3.74 per cent to N1.03.
The market was relatively quiet yesterday as investors only transacted 127.0 million shares worth N1.7 billion in 3,718 deals as against the 223.1 million shares worth N3.9 billion transacted in 4,213 deals on Thursday, indicating a decline in the trading volume, value and number of deals by 43.06 per cent, 55.93 per cent and 11.75 per cent respectively.
GTCO was the busiest stock as it traded 23.5 million units valued at N480.3 million, UBA sold 22.2 million units for N165.6 million, Sterling Bank exchanged 7.4 million units worth N11.1 million, Oando transacted 7.3 million units worth N40.1 million, while FBN Holdings traded 6.0 million units valued at N67.5 million.
During the session, the insurance space grew by 1.23 per cent, the banking ecosystem expanded by 0.36 per cent, the industrial goods sector appreciated by 0.04 per cent, while the energy and the consumer goods counters depreciated by 0.39 per cent and 0.01 per cent.
