By Dipo Olowookere
The All-Share Index (ASI) of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) crossed the 35,000-point threshold on Tuesday on the back of bargain hunting by investors.
The market witnessed a huge buying pressure in shares in the financial services and industrial goods sectors yesterday and this increased the benchmark index by 381.78 points to 35,225.22 points from the previous day’s 34,843.44 points.
It equally pushed the market capitalisation of the exchange higher by N200 billion to settle at N18.411 trillion in contrast to N18.211 trillion it ended on Monday.
Business Post reports that apart from the consumer goods sector, which went down by 0.09 per cent, every other sector closed in the green territory.
The insurance counter appreciated by 3.50 per cent, the industrial goods index grew by 2.40 per cent, the banking sector appreciated by 2.04 per cent, while the oil and gas industry gained 0.42 per cent.
Access Bank was the investors’ darling yesterday as it traded 36.5 million equities valued at N295.3 million and was followed by FBN Holdings, which traded 33.8 million shares for N236.6 million.
Zenith Bank transacted 23.4 million stocks worth N538.6 million, Dangote Sugar sold 23.0 million shares valued at N407.6 million, while Jaiz Bank exchanged 22.2 million equities worth N13.4 million.
In all, a total of 264.2 million shares worth N3.0 billion exchanged hands on Tuesday in 4,354 deals in contrast to the 208.1 million equities worth N3.7 billion transacted in 4,154 deals on Monday, indicating a 20.36 per cent decline in the trading value, a 26.98 per cent rise in the trading volume and a 4.81 per cent growth in the number of deals.
The market breadth remained positive yesterday with the recording of 28 price gainers as against the 15 price losers.
Dangote Cement was the biggest gainer as its equity price moved up by N7 to settle at N195 per unit and was trailed by Lafarge Africa, which gained N1.50 to end at N22.50 per share.
Zenith Bank gained 90 kobo to sell at N23.50 per unit, GTBank appreciated by 55 kobo to trade at N33.55 per share, while Guinness Nigeria rose by 35 kobo to sell at N18 per unit.
On the losers’ table, Greif Nigeria was on top after its share price went down by 90 kobo to close at N8.20 per share, while Red Star Express followed with a price depreciation of 33 kobo to settle at N3.05 per unit.
International Breweries lost 20 kobo to finish at N6.27 per share, Ardova decreased by 15 kobo to N12.05 per share, while FCMB also went down by 15 kobo to close at N2.87 per share.
