By Dipo Olowookere
The reigns of the bears were short-lived at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Thursday as the bulls staged a comeback on the back of bargain-hunting.
Business Post reports that Customs Street appreciated by 0.47 per cent during the session as a result of buying pressure from traders, who are optimistic that companies will declare interim dividends as United Capital did a day earlier.
At the close of transactions, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 470.89 points to 100,503.21 points from the previous day’s 100,032.32 points, and the market capitalisation expanded by N262 billion to settle at N56.908 trillion versus Wednesday’s closing value of N56.646 trillion.
Despite the growth recorded by the bourse yesterday, investor sentiment was weak after a negative market breadth index as 24 stocks appreciated and 29 stocks depreciated.
United Capital improved its value by 9.92 per cent to N39.90, Oando gained 9.76 per cent to quote at N18.55, Africa Prudential increased by 9.55 per cent to N9.75, Learn Africa grew by 9.38 per cent to N3.85, and ABC Transport surged by 9.09 per cent to 84 Kobo.
Conversely, Linkage Assurance went down by 10.00 per cent to 90 Kobo, Veritas Kapital also depreciated by 10.00 per cent to N1.08, Vitafoam shrank by 9.67 per cent to N19.15, Zenith Bank dropped 7.00 per cent to N37.20, and Livestock Feeds depleted by 6.84 per cent to N2.18.
During the trading day, investors traded 392.8 million stocks valued at N8.3 billion in 9,013 deals compared with the preceding session’s 1.1 billion stocks worth N10.1 billion transacted in 8,720 deals at the midweek session, indicating a rise in the number of deals by 3.36 per cent, and a decline in the trading volume and value by 64.27 per cent and 17.82 per cent, respectively.
The most active stock for the day was GTCO with 39.8 million units worth N1.8 billion, Veritas Kapital traded 36.1 million units valued at N39.8 million, FCMB sold 31.6 million stocks for N242.3 million, UBA transacted 29.4 million units worth N689.8 million, and Cutix exchanged 28.6 million units for N190.5 million.