Stock Exchange Rises 0.14% as Julius Berger Closes as Top Gainer

By Dipo Olowookere

The first trading session of the new week on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited closed on a positive note as it appreciated by 0.14 per cent on Monday.

It is the week leading to the governorship election and state houses of assembly polls in Nigeria, and like the presidential and National Assembly elections, investors will pay close attention to happenings in Lagos and other key states of the federation.

Business Post observed that the gains posted by the stock exchange yesterday were fragile as investor sentiment was weak due to cautious trading.

Data showed that the market breadth was negative as there were 20 price losers and 16 price gainers led by Julius Berger, which chalked up 10.00 per cent to settle at N26.95. Unity Bank appreciated by 9.26 per cent to 59 Kobo, International Energy Insurance rose by 8.33 per cent to N1.30, Livestock Feeds improved by 4.67 per cent to N1.12, and Chams jumped by 4.00 per cent to 26 Kobo.

On the flip side, CWG lost 7.14 per cent to trade at 91 Kobo, FTN Cocoa shrank by 6.67 per cent to 28 Kobo, Oando shed 4.39 per cent to quote at N4.36, Courteville dwindled by 4.17 per cent to 46 Kobo, and Japaul moderated by 3.45 per cent to 28 Kobo.

At the market yesterday, investors trimmed their exposure to equities, resulting in an 83.54 per cent decline in the trading volume to 123.6 million units from 750.8 million units.

Also, the trading value depreciated by 7.41 per cent to N2.5 billion from N2.7 billion, while the number of deals increased by 2.88 per cent to 4,076 deals from 3,962 deals.

Transcorp topped the activity chart with a turnover of 11.8 million shares, GTCO followed with 9.4 million equities, UBA exchanged 9.2 million stocks, Oando sold 8.4 million shares, and Fidelity Bank traded 6.5 million stocks.

During the trading day, the banking space lost 0.29 per cent, and the consumer goods index fell by 0.14 per cent, while the insurance and the industrial goods sectors appreciated by 0.11 per cent and 0.01 per cent, respectively, with the energy counter closing flat.

When the market ended for the session, the All-Share Index (ASI) added 76.36 points to settle at 55,605.57 points versus the previous session’s 55,529.21 points, while the market capitalisation grew by N41 billion to close at N30.291 trillion compared with the preceding session’s N30.250 trillion.