Nigerian Exchange Begins Week With 0.79% Growth

By Dipo Olowookere

A 0.79 per cent rise was recorded by the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Monday as a result of bargain-hunting activities by investors, raising the year-to-date return to 1.45 per cent.

Buying activities in the banking and consumer goods sectors helped the bourse close bullish yesterday as their respectively indices closed higher by 4.71 per cent and 1.74 per cent.

However, the insurance, energy and industrial goods counters depreciated by 0.95 per cent, 0.89 per cent and 0.03 per cent, respectively due to selling pressure.

However, they could not affect the outcome of the stock exchange because the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 820.49 points to 104,418.95 points from 103,598.46 points and the market capitalisation grew by N795 billion or 1.25 per cent to N64.440 trillion from N63.645 trillion.

Investor sentiment was strong on the first trading day of the week after Customs Street ended with 38 price gainers and 30 price losers, representing a positive market breadth index.

Beta Glass appreciated by 9.98 per cent to N65.00, RT Briscoe jumped by 9.92 per cent to N2.77, Access Holdings improved by 9.88 per cent to N27.80, Chellaram surged by 9.83 per cent to N4.47, and SAHCO gained 9.80 per cent to N36.40.

On the flip side, MRS Oil depleted by 10.00 per cent to N180.90, Transcorp Hotels lost 9.97 per cent to trade at N114.65, Eunisell fell by 9.64 per cent to N11.40, John Holt declined by 9.64 per cent to N7.50, and Caverton crashed by 9.40 per cent to N2.12.

A total of 518.3 million shares worth N13.3 billion exchanged hands in 17,196 deals on Monday versus the 576.4 million shares valued at N9.0 billion transacted in 11,546 deals last Friday, indicating a fall in the trading volume by 10.08 per cent and an improvement in the trading value and number of deals by 47.78 per cent and 48.93 per cent, respectively.

Access Holdings traded 51.1 million equities valued at N1.4 billion, FCMB exchanged 40.3 million stocks worth N471.5 million, Sterling Holdings transacted 38.9 million shares for N232.7 million, Zenith Bank sold 33.2 million shares worth N1.7 billion, and UBA traded 29.4 million equities valued at N1.1 billion.