By Dipo Olowookere
The upward trajectory witnessed recently at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited continued on Thursday with a further 1.42 per cent growth.
The financial results of companies in the Nigerian stock market for the first quarter of 2022 attracted more investors into the ecosystem, especially the foreign portfolio investors (FPIs), who had earlier exited because of political activities ahead of the 2023 general elections.
Yesterday, investors cherry-picked equities in the ICT, consumer goods and industrial goods sectors in anticipation that their prices will further rise in the coming days.
The consumer goods counter appreciated by 2.86 per cent, the insurance space grew by 0.87 per cent, the industrial goods sector gained by 0.12 per cent, while the energy and banking sectors went down by 0.51 per cent and 0.08 per cent respectively.
At the close of trades, the All-Share Index (ASI) was up by 709.54 points to 50,835.95 points from 50,126.41 points, while the market capitalisation went up by N382 billion to N27.406 trillion from N27.024 trillion.
The market breadth ended positive on Thursday with 22 price losers and 32 price gainers led by Guinness Nigeria and McNichols, which gained 10.00 per cent each to trade at N110.00 and 77 kobo respectively, while Nigerian Breweries rose by 9.95 per cent to N69.05, Fidson appreciated by 9.93 per cent to N9.85, and Conoil grew by 9.92 per cent to N28.80.
Transcorp Hotels ended the session as the biggest price loser as its value shed 9.09 per cent to N4.50, Multiverse declined by 8.70 per cent to 21 kobo, FTN Cocoa and Mutual Benefits lost 7.69 per cent each to trade at 36 kobo and 24 kobo respectively, while Oando went down by 7.41 per cent to N5.25.
Business Post reports that the most traded stock at the market yesterday was FCMB, transacting 138.5 million units valued at N485.2 million, followed by Zenith Bank with the sale of 29.4 million units worth N705.0 million. Transcorp traded 26.4 million equities valued at N30.6 million, UBA transacted 20.7 million stocks worth N166.4 million, while GTCO exchanged 20.3 million shares for N478.8 million.
In total, investors traded 462.6 million equities worth N8.3 billion in 6,801 deals as against the 669.3 million equities worth N6.0 billion transacted in 7,251 deals on Wednesday, representing a decline in the trading volume and number of deals by 30.88 per cent and 6.21 per cent respectively and a rise in the trading value by 38.68 per cent.
