By Dipo Olowookere
Trading activities further closed bullish after the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited rallied by 0.25 per cent on Tuesday on the back of renewed interest in Transcorp Plc and Transcorp Power Plc.
The power-generating subsidiary of Transcorp joined the stock exchange on Monday and has continued to trigger interest from traders, who want to quickly take a bite of the pie.
Yesterday, its shares further gained 10.00 per cent to close at N290.40, as Transcorp improved its value by 10.00 per cent to trade at N17.27.
In addition, FBN Holdings chalked up 9.88 per cent to settle at N31.15, The Initiates rose by 9.77 per cent to N2.36, and Juli expanded by 9.71 per cent to N4.52.
On the flip side, International Breweries and NASCON lost 10.00 per cent each to sell at N4.32, and N48.15, respectively, as May and Baker shed 9.93 per cent to N5.08, and Thomas Wyatt crashed by 9.85 per cent to N1.83, while C&I Leasing depreciated by 9.84 per cent to N3.48.
Investor sentiment was weak during the session as a result of a negative market breadth index, which occurred because the bourse ended with 10 price gainers and 37 price losers.
A total of 398.1 million equities valued at N31.8 billion exchanged hands in 10,976 deals compared with the 429.6 million shares valued at N19.9 billion traded in 10,749 deals on Monday, indicating a decline in the volume of transactions by 7.33 per cent, a rise in the value of trades by 59.80 per cent, and an increase in the number of deals by 2.11 per cent.
Transcorp Power was the busiest stock for the day as it traded 87.5 million units valued at N25.4 billion, and Transcorp transacted 68.0 million units for N1.2 billion. UBA exchanged 23.4 million units worth N519.5 million, Access Holdings sold 18.5 million units valued at N381.0 million, and FBN Holdings traded 17.9 million units worth N540.5 million.
Business Post reports that the All-Share Index (ASI) gained 342.57 points to settle at 99,190.46 points versus the previous day’s 98,847.89 points, and the market capitalisation increased by N193 billion to close at N56.083 trillion, in contrast to Monday’s N55.890 trillion.
It was observed that the industrial goods sector, which closed higher by 1.12 per cent, supported the growth recorded by the exchange on Tuesday, as the others depreciated.
The insurance counter went down by 3.10 per cent, the banking index fell by 0.72 per cent, the consumer goods space lost 0.69 per cent, and the energy sector depreciated by 0.41 per cent.
