By Dipo Olowookere
The first trading session in September 2023 on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited closed on a positive, with a 1.67 per cent growth on Friday.
The local bourse also broke a record in the trading session after the All-Share Index (ASI) gained 978.20 points to hit a new all-time high of 67,527.19 points. The previous day, it closed at 66,548.99 points, which was its highest level in 15 years.
It was observed that the feat was achieved because investors were willing to stake more funds in Nigerian stocks, raising the market capitalisation of the bourse by N535 billion at the close of business to N36.958 trillion from N36.423 trillion.
Business Post reports that all the key sectors of the market attracted traders today, with the banking, insurance, industrial goods, consumer goods, and energy counters growing by 4.69 per cent, 1.68 per cent, 1.63 per cent, 1.46 per cent, and 0.07 per cent, respectively.
The market breadth index reflected the enthusiasm investors had for the domestic equities during the session, as the exchange closed with 41 price gainers and 14 price losers.
Dangote Sugar, Lasaco Assurance, and Tantalizers improved their share prices by 10.00 per cent each to N60.50, N1.98, and 33 Kobo apiece, as NASCO rose by 9.99 per cent to N55.60 and NAHCO appreciated by 9.96 per cent to N25.95.
On the flip side, Prestige Assurance declined by 8.70 per cent to 42 Kobo, GlaxoSmithKline lost 6.47 per cent trade at N13.00, Honeywell Flour depreciated by 5.88 per cent to N3.20, Champion Breweries shed 5.71 per cent to N3.30, and May and Baker fell by 4.90 per cent to N4.85.
Despite the upbeat, the level of transactions decreased on Friday, with the trading volume, value, and the number of deals going down by 18.87 per cent, 4.17 per cent, and 4.59 per cent apiece.
This was because 503.8 million shares worth N6.9 billion were traded in 7,606 deals during the session compared with the 621.0 million shares worth N7.2 billion transacted in 7,972 deals yesterday.
