Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
Shares of Honeywell Flour Mills appreciated by 10.00 per cent on Thursday to N1.87, making the company the best performer at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited during the session.
The flour miller achieved this yesterday as a result of high demand for its stocks at the market, also making it the most traded by investors.
A total of 384.1 million units of the company’s equities worth N654.2 million exchanged hands during the session while Vitafoam in the distant second place traded 21.4 million shares worth N331.2 million.
FCMB traded 13.6 million stocks valued at N42.7 million, Japaul transacted 12.9 million shares for N6.4 million, while Sterling Bank traded 12.0 million equities valued at N18.5 million.
At the close of business, the buying pressure on Honeywell Flour drove the trading volume higher by 214.30 per cent to 570.2 million units from the previous day’s 181.4 million units.
Business Post reports that the trading value increased slightly by 9.23 per cent to N2.3 billion from N2.1 billion, while the number of deals rose by 4.58 per cent to 3,764 deals from 3,599 deals.
It was observed that the market sustained its upward movement on Thursday by 0.11 per cent despite recording 24 price losers and eight price gainers led by Honeywell Flour.
Wema Bank appreciated during the session by 3.95 per cent to 79 kobo, Flour Mills gained 3.10 per cent to sell at N29.90, AIICO Insurance rose by 2.11 per cent to 97 kobo, while GTCO expanded by 1.07 per cent to N28.40.
The worst-performing stock on Thursday was SFS REIT and it depleted by 9.99 per cent to N61.75, followed by Tripple Gee, which declined by 9.28 per cent to 88 kobo.
Regency Assurance decreased by 8.51 per cent to 43 kobo, Prestige Assurance depreciated by 8.33 per cent to 44 kobo, while Japaul deflated by 7.84 per cent to 47 kobo.
Apart from the industrial goods sector, which appreciated by 0.35 per cent yesterday, every other counter closed negative with the insurance index leading after it dropped 1.80 per cent.
The banking sector went down by 0.24 per cent, the energy counter reduced by 0.23 per cent, while the consumer goods sector depreciated by 0.02 per cent.
But when trading activities were closed for the session, the All-Share Index (ASI) went up by 41.60 points to 39,490.06 points from 39,448.46 points, while the market capitalisation rose by N22 billion to N20.575 trillion from N20.553 trillion.
