By Dipo Olowookere
Trading activities at the Nigerian stock market opened for a new week on Monday on a positive note with a marginal 0.02 per cent growth.
Demand in financial stocks, especially those belonging to tier-2 lenders and insurance firms, supported the slight improvement in the key performance indicators of the market.
At the close of transactions yesterday, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 8.00 points to 38,220.01 points from 38,212.01 points, while the market capitalisation went up by N4 billion to N19.923 trillion from N19.919 trillion.
During the session, the insurance, banking and oil/gas sectors appreciated by 1.47 per cent, 0.63 per cent and 0.12 per cent, while the consumer goods and industrial goods sectors depreciated by 0.39 per cent and 0.06 per cent respectively.
On the price movement chart, Cutix emerged as the best-performing stock with a price appreciation of 10.00 per cent to close at N3.30.
NCR Nigeria gained 9.69 per cent to sell for N2.49, Regency Alliance grew by 9.52 per cent to 46 kobo, UAC Property gained 9.30 per cent to trade at 94 kobo, while Coronation Insurance rose by 9.26 per cent to 59 kobo.
The worst-performing stock for the day was Red Star Express, which depreciated by 9.81 per cent to trade at N3.31 and was trailed by ABC Transport, which lost 8.11 per cent to finish at 34 kobo.
NPF Microfinance Bank went down by 6.98 per cent to trade at N1.60, Presco declined by 6.04 per cent to N70.00, while Chams lost 4.76 per cent to sell for 20 kobo.
Business Post reports that a total of 283.6 million stocks worth N1.9 billion were traded by investors in 4,788 deals on Monday in contrast to the 209.2 million stocks worth N2.0 billion transacted in 3,240 deals at the preceding session.
This signified that apart from the trading value which went down by 7.24 per cent, the trading volume and the number of deals went up by 35.10 per cent and 47.78 per cent respectively.
Fidelity Bank was the most traded stock with the sale of 28.1 million units worth N64.5 million and was followed by Wema Bank, which transacted 19.6 million units valued at N14.4 million.
Universal Insurance traded 18.0 million shares worth N3.6 million, FCMB exchanged 14.8 million equities for N45.9 million, while Sovereign Trust Insurance transacted 14.4 million stocks for N3.9 million.
