Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) recorded a strong investor sentiment on the last trading session of the week, closing with 31 price gainers and 11 price losers.
This propelled the All-Share Index (ASI) to another level, hitting the 31,000 mark after appreciating by 277.25 points on Friday. The benchmark market performance ended the session at 31,016.17 points as against Thursday’s 30,738.92 points.
Business Post reports that the renewed buying interest in the Nigerian equities lifted the market from the previous session’s dungeon by 0.90 per cent yesterday.
This increased the market capitalisation by N145 billion to N16.207 trillion at the close of transactions from N16.062 trillion it closed a day earlier.
Most of the stocks mopped up by investors during the session were in the banking space and this lifted the sector by 3.39 per cent, while the consumer goods and industrial goods counters grew by 0.60 per cent and 0.05 per cent respectively. However, the insurance and energy indices fell by 2.68 per cent and 0.21 per cent respectively.
Dangote Cement was the highest price gainer on Friday with the addition of N5.50 to its equity price to settle at N174.50 per unit.
GTBank gained N1.20 to close at N33.50 per unit, Presco appreciated by N1.10 to finish at N67 per share, Guinness Nigeria chalked up 95 kobo to end at N17.50 per share, while Dangote Sugar improved by 95 kobo to N16.50 per unit.
On the opposite side, BUA Cement led the losers’ log after suffering a price depreciation of N2.45 to trade at N43 per share, while Flour Mills lost 40 kobo to sell at N27.20 per share.
Axa Mansard declined by 20 kobo to N2 per share, NEM Insurance went down by 18 kobo to N2.05 per unit, while Oando dropped 6 kobo o close at N2.70 per share.
A look at the activity level showed that the volume of shares rose by 48.21 per cent to 637.5 million units from 430.1 million, units and the number of deals increased by 47.12 per cent to 6,354 from 4,319, while the value of the transactions fell by 21.00 per cent to N5.2 billion from N6.6 billion.
The most traded stock yesterday was Omoluabi Mortgage Bank, trading 139.5 million units worth N83.7 million, while FBN Holdings traded 91.4 million units valued at N595.0 million.
Sterling Bank exchanged 51.5 million stocks worth N93.7 million, Access Bank transacted 47.3 million equities for N382.1 million, while UBA traded 44.6 million shares for N356.4 million.
