By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited had a lucky escape from the dungeon of the bears on Friday on the back of buying interests in the shares of PZ Cussons, GTCO, NGX Group and others.
Business Post reports that the stock market appreciated by a marginal 0.01 per cent and from analysis of the trading data, the bears are still lurking around and could pounce on the exchange anytime.
This is because, despite the increase in the market indices, investor sentiment remained weak as the exchange closed with 16 price losers and 15 price gainers led by PZ Cussons, which rose by 6.90 per cent to N9.30.
Japaul appreciated by 6.45 per cent to 33 kobo, FTN Cocoa grew by 6.06 per cent to 35 kobo, Africa Prudential improved by 5.98 per cent to N6.20, while Niger Insurance gained 5.00 per cent to sell for 21 kobo.
On the losers’ log, Northern Nigerian Flour Mills was on top as its equity price fell by 7.83 per cent to trade at N10.00, followed by FCMB, which lost 7.22 per cent to close at N3.34.
Livestock Feeds depreciated by 6.06 per cent to N1.55, Neimeth declined by 3.68 per cent to N1.57, while UPDC retreated by 3.30 per cent to 88 kobo.
Yesterday, the activity chart was mixed as the value of transactions increased by 59.21 per cent to N4.2 billion from N2.6 billion, while the volume of trades went down by 17.52 per cent to 177.1 million units from 214.7 million units, with the number of deals decreasing by 3.25 per cent to 3,873 deals from 4,003 deals.
Fidelity Bank was the most active stock during the session as it sold 62.7 million shares valued at N206.5 million, Zenith Bank exchanged 22.1 million equities worth N591.2 million, GTCO sold 16.4 million stocks for N381.6 million, UBA transacted 12.3 million shares for N94.0 million, while Honeywell Flour exchanged 9.3 million equities valued at N35.3 million.
A look at the performance of the five key sectors of the market showed that two closed flat and they were the energy and the industrial goods, while the banking, insurance and consumer goods counters appreciated by 0.48 per cent, 0.15 per cent and 0.07 per cent respectively.
When the market closed for the day by 2:30 pm, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 3.94 points to 46,964.23 points from 46,960.29 points, while the market capitalisation rose by N2 billion to N25.311 trillion from N25.309 trillion.
