By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited bounced back to the green territory on Tuesday a day after it dipped as a result of profit-taking.
At the market yesterday, Nigerian equities closed higher by 0.11 per cent on the back of gains posted by Honeywell Flour Mills, Dangote Cement, Fidelity Bank and 13 others, enough to neutralise the losses recorded by GTCO, Zenith Bank, Oando and 13 others.
In view of this, the All-Share Index (ASI) moved up by 44.96 points to 39,550.36 points from 39,505.40 points, while the market capitalisation went up by N23 billion to N20.606 trillion from N20.583 trillion.
Data showed that investors are still very cautious at the market, awaiting the half-year results of the tier-one banks before deciding on the next line of action.
Only the industrial goods sector appreciated yesterday and this was by 1.76 per cent as every other counter closed lower with the consumer goods losing 4.61 per cent.
Business Post reports that the insurance sector lost 1.17 per cent, the energy index depreciated by 0.15 per cent, while the banking space went down by 0.02 per cent.
A look at the activity chart indicated that a total of 110.8 million stocks valued at N3.1 billion were traded in 3,305 deals on Tuesday compared with the 141.3 million stocks worth N1.6 billion transacted in 3,393 deals on Monday.
This implied that the number of deals went down by 2.59 per cent, the trading volume decreased by 21.60 per cent, while the trading value appreciated by 88.50 per cent.
Transcorp emerged as the most traded stock at the stock exchange yesterday as it transacted 11.9 million equities valued at N11.3 million and was trailed by FBN Holdings, which traded 11.1 million shares worth N81.3 million.
Oando sold 7.3 million stocks valued at N36.4 million, Access Bank traded 6.2 million equities valued at N56.3 million, while NAHCO transacted 5.4 million stocks worth N14.2 million.
On the price movement log, Honeywell Flour Mills maintained its recent upward movement on Tuesday as it further appreciated by 9.78 per cent to sell for N2.47.
Pharma Deko grew by 9.24 per cent to N1.30, Wema Bank gained 3.70 per cent to trade at 84 kobo, Neimeth rose by 3.66 per cent to N1.70, while Dangote Cement appreciated by 3.31 per cent to N249.60.
On the flip side, SCOA Nigeria topped the losers’ chart as its share value went down by 9.74 per cent to N1.76 and was trailed by Nestle Nigeria, which lost 9.09 per cent to sell at N1400.00.
FTN Cocoa depreciated by 8.51 per cent to 43 kobo, Consolidated Hallmark Insurance decreased by 8.16 per cent to 45 kobo, while Linkage Assurance fell by 6.35 per cent to 59 kobo.
