Nigeria’s Stock Exchange Records Marginal 0.05% Growth

By Dipo Olowookere

The flagship stock exchange in Nigeria posted a marginal appreciation of 0.05 per cent on Thursday consumer goods and industrial goods sectors closed higher by 0.31 per cent and 0.01 per cent, respectively.

Business Post reports that the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited survived a scare today after investors booked profit in the banking, insurance and energy counter, depleting by 1.27 per cent, 0.12 per cent, and 0.06 per cent, respectively.

Unlike the preceding trading day, investor sentiment was weak today after the bourse ended with 19 appreciating shares and 22 depreciating shares, indicating a negative market breadth index.

Royal Exchange was the biggest price gainer of the session, rising by 9.72 per cent to 79 Kobo, as Unilever Nigeria gained 9.59 per cent to trade at N16.00, Tantalizers expanded by 8.57 per cent to 38 Kobo, UPDC jumped by 7.14 per cent to N1.50, and Regency Alliance rose by 5.41 per cent to 39 Kobo.

Conversely, International Energy Insurance posted the heaviest loss, going down by 10.00 per cent to N1.35, and Sunu Assurance lost confidence by 9.93 per cent to sell at N1.27. International Breweries depreciated by 9.91 per cent to N4.00, Consolidated Hallmark crumbled by 9.40 per cent to N1.35, and Unity Bank disintegrated by 5.18 per cent to N1.83.

The busiest stock on Thursday was FBN Holdings, which recorded the sale of 28.6 million units valued at N993.2 million, followed by Transcorp with 27.1 million units worth N436.7 million. Access Holdings exchanged 25.3 million units for N602.1 million, GTCO traded 13.9 million units valued at N609.9 million, and Zenith Bank sold 13.3 million units worth N511.5 million.

At the close of business, a total of 226.3 million shares worth N7.4 billion were traded in 5,823 deals versus the 327.0 million stocks worth N9.1 billion transacted in 9,570 deals on Wednesday.

This indicated that the trading volume went down by 30.80 per cent, the trading value depreciated by 18.68 per cent, and the number of deals contracted by 39.15 per cent.

As for the index movement chart, the All-Share Index was elevated by 48.72 points to 104,056.21 points from 104,007.49 points, and the market capitalisation advanced by N28 billion to N58.835 trillion from N58.807 trillion.