Union Bank, 24 Others Halt Dominance of Bears at Stock Market

By Dipo Olowookere

The reign of the bears at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited was cut short on Friday by 25 equities led by Union Bank of Nigeria.

For eight consecutive trading days, the bears dominated the bourse but an attempt to stretch the losing streak to the ninth day was aborted by financial stocks and others as the exchange improved by 1.42 per cent at the close of transactions.

Business Post reports that the growth was across the key sectors of the market, with the banking space rising by 6.60 per cent. The insurance index appreciated by 0.91 per cent, the industrial goods counter expanded by 0.24 per cent, the consumer goods sector grew by 0.20 per cent, while the energy counter rose by 0.06 per cent.

Consequently, the All-Share Index (ASI) flew by 703.11 points to 50,370.25 points from 49,667.14 points, while the market capitalisation went up by N379 billion to N27.163 trillion from N26.784 trillion.

Investor sentiment was strong yesterday as the market breadth closed bullish with 13 price losers and 25 price gainers led by Union Bank, which chalked up 10.00 per cent to settle at N5.50.

Multiverse rose by 9.94 per cent to N1.88, United Capital appreciated by 9.90 per cent to N11.10, Transcorp improved by 9.80 per cent to N1.12, while NGX Group rose by 9.75 per cent to N21.95.

The heaviest price loser on Friday was PZ Cussons as its share price went down by 9.57 per cent to N8.50, Caverton lost 9.09 per cent to sell for N1.00, Wema Bank fell by 8.36 per cent to N3.29, Academy Press declined by 7.50 per cent to N1.85, while Courteville dropped 6.98 per cent to close at 40 Kobo.

Despite the growth recorded yesterday, the activity chart was mixed, with the number of deals decreasing by 2.93 per cent to 4,905 deals from 5,053 deals and the trading value going down by 28.29 per cent to N2.8 billion from N3.9 billion. The trading volume, however, appreciated by 23.55 per cent to 254.8 million shares from 206.2 million shares.

Living Trust Mortgage Bank recorded the highest trading volume with the sale of 50.0 million shares valued at N60.0 million, Zenith Bank exchanged 22.7 million equities for N459.3 million, Flour Mills sold 18.9 million stocks for N575.1 million, UBA traded 15.6 million equities worth N108.1 million, while FBN Holdings transacted 15.2 million shares for N164.8 million.