By Dipo Olowookere
It was a good week for holders of Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc as the equity value of the company appreciated by 50 per cent, closing at 42 kobo per unit.
The share price of the firm was the second on the weekly gainers’ chart in the second trading week of 2021, behind Japaul Gold & Ventures Plc, which maintained its bull run with a 56.70 per cent growth to settle at N1.52 per share.
Royal Exchange occupied the third spot with a 47.83 per cent gain to trade at 34 kobo per unit, Axa Mansard Insurance grew by 34.45 per cent to finish at N1.60 per unit, while Champion Breweries appreciated by 32.35 per cent to sell at N1.35 per share.
In all, a total of 60 equities appreciated in price during the week, higher than 50 equities in the previous week.
On the flip side, Cutix was the worst-performing stock last week with a price depreciation of 12.92 per cent to close at N2.09 per share. DAAR Communications went down by 10.00 per cent to sell at 27 kobo per unit, Chellarams depressed by 9.96 per cent to N2.26 per share, Deap Capital lost 9.09 per cent to close at 20 kobo per unit, while Union Diagnostic deflated by 6.25 per cent to 30 kobo per share.
In all, 19 equities depreciated in price during the week, lower than 21 of the preceding week.
Business Post reports that in the week, the All-Share Index and market capitalisation of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) appreciated by 2.63 per cent to close at 41,176.14 and N21.530 trillion respectively.
Similarly, all other indices finished higher with the exception of the growth index, which depreciated by 3.32 per cent while the NSE ASeM index closed flat.
On the activity chart, investors traded 3.5 billion shares worth N32.7 billion in 30,327 deals, in contrast to the 3.4 billion shares valued at N19.9 billion transacted in 26,808 deals a week earlier.
The financial services sector dominated the chart with 1.7 billion equities worth N13.4 billion traded in 15,102 deals, contributing 49.74 per cent and 40.80 per cent to the total trading volume and value respectively.
The construction/real estate industry followed with 768.1 million shares worth N4.2 billion executed in 430 deals, while the conglomerates counter traded 279.8 million shares worth N578.7 million in 1,199 deals.
UPDC REIT, Mutual Benefits and Transcorp accounted for 1.2 billion shares worth N4.5 billion in 929 deals, contributing 35.52 per cent and 13.63 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
