Nigerian Breweries, Others ‘Ginger’ Stock Market by 1.09%

By Dipo Olowookere

The last trading session of the week on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) closed on a positive note on Friday with an appreciation of 1.09 per cent, buoyed by Nigerian Breweries and other stocks.

Renewed bargain-hunting in the equities of the brewery company and 20 others raised the All-Share Index (ASI) of the bourse by 481.51 points yesterday to 44,492.73 points from 44,011.22 points, as the market capitalisation increased by N262 billion to N24.234 trillion from N23.972 trillion due to the positive performance across all the sectors.

Business Post reports that the consumer goods index rose by 1.27 per cent, the banking space appreciated by 0.48 per cent, the energy counter improved by 0.42 per cent, and the insurance sector went up by 0.17 per cent, with the industrial goods counter closing flat.

Based on data from the stock market, investor sentiment was very strong yesterday as the market breadth closed positive. There were only 11 price losers.

Nigerian Breweries gained 10.00 per cent to trade at N41.25, Union Bank appreciated 9.24 per cent to N6.50, ABC Transport increased its value by 8.70 per cent to 25 Kobo, Axa Mansard climbed higher by 7.27 per cent to N1.77, and United Capital jumped by 6.64 per cent to N12.05.

Conversely, Fidson recorded the heaviest loss as it dropped 9.34 per cent to close at N8.15, Coronation Insurance declined by 8.33 per cent to 33 Kobo, Regency Assurance fell by 8.00 per cent to 23 Kobo, Sovereign Trust Insurance depreciated by 7.69 per cent to 24 Kobo, and Mutual Benefits moderated by 3.57 per cent to 27 Kobo.

During the final session of the week, Transcorp attracted the attention of investors, selling the highest volume of shares with a turnover of 24.4 million units.

FBN Holdings sold 21.8 million units, Courteville traded 17.0 million shares, Fidelity Bank transacted 12.6 million equities, and Linkage Assurance traded 8.0 million stocks.

Trading data revealed that the level of transactions improved yesterday as the volume of trades rose by 50.13 per cent, the value of transactions went up by 45.76 per cent, and the number of deals increased by 1.61 per cent.

At the close of business, traders bought and sold 146.7 million stocks valued at N1.2 billion in 3,028 deals compared with the 97.7 million stocks worth N847.9 million traded in 2,980 deals on Thursday.