Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
The key trading indices of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited remained in the green territory on Monday as they ended the first trading session of the new week 0.10 per cent higher.
This was driven by a sustained buying interest in some large and mid-cap equities like BUA Foods, Ecobank, Dangote Cement, FBN Holdings, Honeywell Flour, Lafarge Africa and others.
When the market closed for the day, the All-Share Index (ASI) was up by 42.71 points to 43,897.13 points from 43,854.42 points, while the market capitalisation was up by N23 trillion to N23.651 trillion from N23.628 trillion.
Business Post reports that investor sentiment was positive yesterday as the market closed with 19 price losers and 28 price gainers led by BUA Foods, which rose by 9.96 per cent to N58.50.
MRS Oil appreciated by 9.72 per cent to N13.55, PZ Cussons grew by 8.53 per cent to N7.00, AIICO Insurance expanded by 7.69 per cent to 84 kobo, while NPF Microfinance Bank appreciated by 6.45 per cent to N1.98.
On the opposite side, Northern Nigerian Flour Mills ended the session as the heaviest price loser after its share price went down by 9.66 per cent to N6.55.
Union Bank declined by 6.90 per cent to N5.40, Red Star Express shrank by 6.38 per cent to N3.23, MTN Nigeria lost 5.84 per cent to sell for N185.50, while Sovereign Trust Insurance fell by 3.85 per cent to 25 kobo.
During the day, BUA Foods was the most active stock as it traded stock with a turnover of 101.4 million units valued at N5.9 billion and was trailed by Transcorp, which exchanged 51.2 million units for N50.2 million.
Zenith Bank sold 12.1 million equities worth N308.6 million at the market on Monday, GTCO transacted 10.4 million stocks valued at N265.6 million, while Sovereign Trust Insurance traded 9.5 million shares valued at N2.3 million.
Analysis showed that the volume of shares transacted by investors yesterday went down by 21.23 per cent to 311.3 million units from 395.2 million units, while the value dropped 30.30 per cent to N8.6 billion from N12.4 billion, with the number of deals appreciating by 31.51 per cent to 5,159 deals from 3,923 deals.
The sectorial performance of the session indicated that the insurance and industrial goods counters appreciated by 2.77 per cent and 1.71 per cent respectively, while the energy, banking and consumer goods sectors depreciated by 0.58 per cent, 0.12 per cent and 0.05 per cent respectively.
