Nigerian Exchange Rises 0.36% as Traders Pick Financial Shares, Others

By Dipo Olowookere

A 0.36 per cent growth was recorded by the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Tuesday following the buying pressure on financial shares, consumer goods stocks and others.

Data from the market showed that the insurance sector appreciated by 3.19 per cent, the banking space rose by 1.10 per cent, the consumer goods index improved by 0.85 per cent, and the industrial goods counter went up by 0.06 per cent, while the energy sector went down by 0.72 per cent.

The All-Share Index (ASI) reacted positively to this and closed higher by 188.04 points to 52,419.33 points from 52,231.29 points, as the market capitalisation of the bourse chalked up by N103 billion to close at N28.543 trillion compared with the previous day’s value of N28.440 trillion.

The activity chart was mixed yesterday as the volume of shares transacted by the market participants decreased by 7.90 per cent to 576.9 million units from 626.4 million units, the number of deals increased by 1.82 per cent to 6,143 deals from 6,033 deals, and the value of shares traded jumped by 21.43 per cent to N6.8 billion from N5.6 billion.

UBA topped the activity chart after it traded 94.3 million equities worth N795.9 million, Transcorp sold 86.4 million stocks valued at N261.7 million, Access Holdings exchanged 62.4 million shares worth N635.7 million, Zenith Bank traded 57.4 million shares worth N1.4 billion, and FBN Holdings transacted 47.4 million stocks for N571.5 million.

Nigerian Breweries was the best-performing stock yesterday after it rose by 9.97 per cent to N35.30, FTN Cocoa expanded by 9.68 per cent to 34 Kobo, Sovereign Trust Insurance jumped by 9.52 per cent to 46 Kobo, Cornerstone Insurance increased by 8.82 per cent to 74 Kobo, and Transcorp moved up by 7.75 per cent to N3.06.

On the flip side, CWG finished the day as the worst-performing equity after it dropped 9.63 per cent to N1.69, Courteville depleted by 6.52 per cent to 43 Kobo, Ardova shed 6.06 per cent to N24.80, GlaxoSmithKline slumped by 4.41 per cent to N6.50, and Royal Exchange slipped by 4.00 per cent to 48   Kobo.