By Dipo Olowookere
The stock market in Nigeria continued its recent bull run on Friday, appreciating by 3.71 per cent after more positive Q3 earnings inspired investors to expand their portfolios.
The bargain-hunting pushed the All-Share Index (ASI) to a level last seen in June 2019 as it crossed 30,000 points at the close of transactions. The index increased yesterday by 1,093.09 points to settle at 30,530.69 points versus 29,437.60 points it ended on Wednesday.
Business Post recalled that the last time the ASI was near 30,530.69 was on Thursday, June 6, 2019, when the market lost 1.30 per cent and the index closed at 30,527.07 points.
Yesterday, the market capitalisation inched closer to the N16 trillion region as it increased by N571 billion to finish at N15.958 trillion in contrast to N15.387 trillion it ended the previous session.
It was observed that all the five key sub-sectors of the market closed positive with the consumer goods space rising by 5.58 per cent and was followed by the industrial goods sector, which gained 5.53 per cent.
The banking counter appreciated by 3.48 per cent, the oil/gas index rose by 3.07 per cent, while the insurance sector moved up by 2.32 per cent.
There were 43 price gainers at the close of business on Friday, higher than the 11 price losers and the 10 stocks, which had their prices unchanged.
The biggest price riser was Nestle Nigeria, which appreciated by N129.20 to close at N1421.70 per share and was trailed by Mobil Nigeria, which gained 17.80 to finish at N196.10 per unit.
Total Nigeria rose by N11 to end at N129.90 per share, Dangote Cement appreciated by N4.70 to trade at N160 per unit, while BUA Cement chalked up N4.10 to sell at N45.50 per share.
Guinness Nigeria was the heaviest price loser on Friday after depreciating by 55 kobo to quote at N17 per unit and was followed by NAHCO, which lost 12 kobo to settle at N2.10 per share.
PZ Cussons shed 10 kobo to trade at N4.45 per unit, Prestige Assurance declined by 6 kobo to sell at 54 kobo per share, while Ecobank depleted by 5 kobo to N5.65 per unit.
On the activity chart, the trading volume, value and number of deals increased by 115.27 per cent, 126.60 per cent and 36.42 per cent respectively.
This was because a total of 807.8 million shares worth N10.5 billion were traded in 8,113 deals yesterday compared with the 375.2 million stocks worth N4.6 billion transacted in 5,947 deals on Wednesday.
There was no trading activity on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday as a result of the public holiday declared by the federal government to celebrate Eid-el-Maulud, which is the birthday of Prophet Mohammed.
UBA was the most traded stock on Friday as a result of the 108.6 million units of its shares worth N816.7 million traded by market participants.
Access Bank transacted 94.7 million equities valued at N746.9 million, FBN Holdings exchanged 89.6 million stocks for N581.5 million, Zenith Bank traded 75.2 million shares valued at N1.7 billion, while GTBank transacted 56.2 million stocks worth N1.8 billion.
