Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
The first trading session of the new week at the exchange located on Customs Street, Victoria Island, Lagos closed bullish as Nigerian stocks appreciated by 0.89 per cent on Monday.
The gains recorded by 26 equities, which overpowered the losses printed by eight shares pushed the All-Share Index (ASI) higher by 340.48 points to 38,722.87 points from the previous 38,382.39 points and lifted the market capitalisation by N178 billion to N20.260 trillion from N20.082 trillion.
Business Post observed that the growth achieved yesterday was influenced by gains across the key sectors of the market with the exception of the banking counter, which slightly went down by 0.01 per cent.
The industrial goods sector appreciated by 2.12 per cent, the insurance space grew by 0.44 per cent, the consumer goods index rose by 0.29 per cent, while the energy counter gained 0.14 per cent.
On the price movement chart, Berger Paints topped the gainers’ group after it appreciated by 10.00 per cent to close at N18.70.
Stanbic IBTC also gained 10.00 per cent to sell for N44, UAC Nigeria rose by 6.67 per cent to N8, John Holt expanded by 6.52 per cent to 49 kobo, while International Breweries gained 5.88 per cent to quote at N5.40.
At the losers’ end, Champion Breweries led with a price depreciation of 8.20 per cent, closing at N2.24 and was trailed by Jaiz Bank, which fell by 4.48 per cent to 64 kobo.
Japaul declined by 4.08 per cent to trade at 47 kobo, Consolidated Hallmark Insurance decreased by 3.23 per cent to 30 kobo, while Learn Africa went down by 2.73 per cent to N1.07.
Despite the growth posted on Monday, the level of activity reduced as the trading volume went down by 4.60 per cent to 277.2 million units from 290.6 million units, the trading value decreased by 24.00 per cent to N3.1 billion from N4.0 billion, while the number of deals went down by 0.28 per cent to 4,299 deals from 4,311 deals.
The announcement of a dividend by the board of Union Bank for 2020 financial has spurred interest in the stock and yesterday, the lender traded 79.9 million units of its shares worth N423.4 million.
GTBank exchanged 36.1 million equities valued at N1.1 billion, FBN Holdings transacted 33.3 million stocks for N242.5 million, Zenith Bank sold 25.0 million shares for N562.5 million, while Transcorp traded 24.1 million stocks valued at N19.5 million.
