By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited commenced the first trading session in December 2023 on a bullish note, with a marginal growth of 0.08 per cent.
Sustained buying pressure kept Nigerian stocks in the positive territory, extending the dominance of the bulls on Customs Street, though the turnover waned.
Business Post observed that investors cherry-picked equities in the banking and the energy sectors during the session, leaving them rising by 1.14 per cent and 0.05 per cent, respectively.
However, the insurance counter lost 1.10 per cent, the consumer goods index depreciated by 0.08 per cent, and the industrial goods space decreased by 0.06 per cent due to profit-taking activities.
At the close of business, the All-Share Index (ASI) went up by 54.62 points to 71,419.87 points from 71,365.25 points, and the market capitalisation grew by N30 billion to settle at N39.082 trillion compared with the previous day’s N39.052 trillion.
Analysis of the activity chart showed that traders transacted 361.1 million shares valued at N10.2 billion in 5,640 deals compared with the 540.1 million shares worth N10.2 billion traded in 6,516 deals on Thursday.
This implied that the volume of transactions went down by 33.14 per cent, the number of deals depreciated by 13.44 per cent, and the value of trades closed flat.
The most active stock for the trading session was Universal Insurance with a turnover of 44.1 million units valued at N11.8 million, Jaiz Bank sold 35.4 million units for N53.6 million, Access Holdings exchanged 23.9 million units worth N430.4 million, Veritas Kapital traded 18.4 million units valued at N6.6 million, and Unity Bank transacted 18.4 million units worth N27.0 million.
Unlike the preceding trading session, investor sentiment was strong yesterday with 38 appreciating equities and 27 depreciating equities, implying a positive market breadth index.
The trio of Unity Bank, Ikeja Hotel, and Neimeth chalked up 10.00 per cent each to quote at N1.54, N4.62, and N1.87 apiece, while Omatek improved by 9.86 per cent to 78 Kobo, and Thomas Wyatt rose by 9.65 per cent to N2.50.
On the flip side, Sunu Assurances declined by 10.00 per cent to trade at N1.26, UAC Nigeria dropped 9.76 per cent to N15.25, McNichols shrank by 9.64 per cent to 75 Kobo, Cadbury Nigeria crashed by 7.49 per cent to N14.20, Royal Exchange lost 6.15 per cent to sell for 61 Kobo.
