Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
The nation’s equity market ended the last trading day of the year 2019 in green on Tuesday, December 31 on the back of persistent buying interest from investors.
The market, during the session, appreciated by 0.87 percent to reduce the year-to-date loss to 14.60 percent as traders rebalanced their portfolios in preparation of the forthcoming earnings season.
Access Bank brought that feeling to the market when it announced a closed period as well as a board meeting fixed for later this month to consider and approve its full year financial statements for 2019.
Business Post observed that investors mopped up more stocks at the market, triggering a 175.22 percent rise in the trading volume to 1.1 billion units from 382.8 million units traded in the previous session. However, the value of the transactions reduced by 23.52 percent to N5.5 billion from N7.2 billion.
The huge transactions recorded at the market on Tuesday was buoyed by Omoluabi Mortgage Bank, which sold 796.5 million units of its stocks worth N438.1 million during the trading day.
Access Bank traded 47.3 million shares worth N471.4 million, UBA exchanged 37.4 million equities valued at N267.7 million, Zenith Bank transacted 29.8 million shares for N554.0 million, while Dangote Cement exchanged 16.8 million stocks worth N2.4 billion.
An analysis of the performance of stocks during the session showed that Seplat emerged as the biggest price gainer, rising by N59.80 to finish at N657.80 per share, while Stanbic IBTC gained N2 to end at N41 per unit.
Lafarge Africa appreciated by N1.30 to settle at N15.30 per share, GTBank rose by 70 kobo to close at N29.70 per unit, while Okomu Oil appreciated by 60 kobo to finish at N55.60 per unit.
At the other side, Nigerian Breweries was the heaviest price loser, depreciating by 75 kobo to close at N59 per share, UPDC Reit went down by 45 kobo to settle at N4.25 per share.
FBN Holdings dropped 20 kobo to close at N6.15 per share, Dangote Sugar also reduced by 20 kobo to trade at N13.60 per share, while Africa Prudential depreciated by 18 kobo to close at N4 per share.
When the market closed for the year, the All-Share Index (ASI) on the last day increased by 232.73 points to 26,842.07 points from 26,609.34 the previous day, while the market capitalisation grew by N112 billion to N12.958 trillion from N12.846 trillion.
