Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
After days of panic trading as a result of unrest in some parts of the country, which necessitated the declaration of curfew in Lagos and other states, investors are beginning to show strong confidence in the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
On Friday, the last trading day of the week, investors embarked on bargain hunting, mopping up some stocks especially in the banking sector they believe could give good yields in the coming days.
Already, the investment community is awaiting the release of third quarter earnings of most companies on the exchange and the few ones released so far have shown what should be expected.
In order to benefit from the possible rise in the prices of value stocks at the market, smart investors are already taking a position and at the close of transactions today, the bourse appreciated by 0.47 per cent.
This boosted the All-Share Index (ASI) by 133.19 points to 28,697.06 points from 28,563.87 points and raised the market capitalisation by N70 billion to N15.000 trillion from N14.930 trillion.
Business Post reports that four of the major sub-sectors tracked during the session appreciated as only the insurance index closed negative by 0.12 per cent.
The banking space grew by 1.69 per cent, the industrial goods sector appreciated by 0.46 per cent, the consumer goods counter gained 0.29 per cent and the energy space increased by 0.03 per cent.
The market breadth closed positive today with 20 price gainers and six price losers and this showed a positive investor sentiment.
NASCON was the highest price gainer as its share price rose by N1.30 to settle at N14.30 per unit, while Dangote Cement gained N1 to finish at N151 per share.
GTBank appreciated by 45 kobo to sell for N30.45 per unit, Zenith Bank improved by 35 kobo to close at N21 per share, while PZ Cussons gained 30 kobo to quote at N4.40 per unit.
The heaviest price loser of the day was Northern Nigerian Flour Mills as the company’s stock depreciated by 46 kobo to settle at N4.19 per share.
Vitafoam went down by 20 kobo to N6 per unit, NPF Microfinance Bank depreciated by 6 kobo to N1.34 per unit, Honeywell Flour slumped by 4 kobo to 91 kobo per unit, while Union Diagnostic declined by one kobo to sell at 26 kobo per share.
The level of activity further declined on Friday as the trading volume, value and number of deals went down by 9.11 per cent, 5.64 per cent and 12.83 per cent respectively.
This was because the trading volume dropped to 283.0 million units from 311.3 million units, the trading value reduced to N4.4 billion from N4.7 billion, while the number of deals slipped to 2,942 from 3,375 at the close of trading activities.
Banking stocks continued to dominate the activity chart, while Access Bank was the most traded equity after transacting 80.5 million units valued at N622.9 million.
GTBank traded 76.5 million shares worth N2.3 billion, UBA exchanged 24.9 million equities for N174.4 million, FBN Holdings traded 24.4 million stocks worth N149.2 million, while Zenith Bank transacted 19.6 million shares valued at N409.3 million.
