By Dipo Olowookere
More than N1 trillion was gained by investors on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday in an unusual trading session.
Yesterday was an extraordinary day at the nation’s stock market because, for the first time since the exchange introduced a circuit breaker in 2016, it was used when the index rose beyond the first threshold of 5 per cent.
During the session, trading activities were halted for 30 minutes because the benchmark performance indicator was going above the ceiling and in order to calm things down, the breaker was triggered.
At the close of transactions, after activities resumed an hour to end of trading at 2.30pm, the market gained 6.23 per cent.
Consequently, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 2,074.10 points to 35,342.46 points from 33,268.36 points, while the market capitalisation went up by N1.1 trillion to N18.468 trillion from N17.384 trillion.
There was a significant rise in the level of activity yesterday as the trading volume jumped by 39.00 per cent to 1.2 billion stocks from 858.2 million stocks traded on Wednesday.
Also, the trading value increased by 91.95 per cent to N17.4 billion from N9.1 billion, while the number of deals appreciated by 31.47 per cent to 10,704 deals from 8,142 deals.
A total of 161.4 million shares of Zenith Bank valued at N4.5 billion were traded yesterday, leaving the company to finish the session as the most active on the NSE.
FBN Holdings transacted 121.5 million units worth N1.0 billion, Access Bank traded 100.9 million shares valued at N992.8 million, UBA exchanged 80.5 million equities for N770.4 million, while Fidelity Bank traded 79.5 million stocks worth N239.5 million.
The highest price gainer of the day was Nestle Nigeria, which added N50 to its share value to close at N1450 per unit and was followed by Airtel Nigeria, which gained N41 to close at N451.20 per unit.
Dangote Cement rose by N15 to settle at N200 per share, Presco depreciated by N7.25 to sell at N79.75 per unit, while Nigerian Breweries increased by N5.60 to trade at N63.10 per share.
The biggest price loser was Eterna, which fell by 50 kobo to trade at N4.57 per unit, while Global Spectrum Energy Services lost 46 kobo to quote at N4.19 per share.
May & Baker depreciated by 35 kobo to N3.25 per unit, Morison Industries dropped 5 kobo to trade at 49 kobo per share, while NEM Insurance declined by 5 kobo to N2.20 per unit.
The industrial goods sector was the best-performer yesterday, rising by 8.65 per cent and was trailed by the banking counter, which grew by 7.94 per cent.
The consumer goods space appreciated by 5.81 per cent, the insurance sector appreciated by 4.78 per cent, while the energy space went up by 1.98 per cent.
