By Dipo Olowookere
A 0.04 per cent uptick was recorded by the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Friday, extending gains for the second straight trading session.
The Nigerian stock market survived a scare during the trading day due to the marginal 0.01 per cent appreciation posted by the industrial good sector, as profit-taking dominated the bourse.
The insurance counter depreciated by 0.75 per cent, the banking space lost 0.75 per cent, the consumer goods index fell by 0.15 per cent, and the energy sector declined by 0.04 per cent.
This left investor sentiment bearish as the exchange closed with 28 declining stocks and 17 advancing stocks, representing a negative market breadth index.
Sovereign Trust Insurance topped the gainers’ log yesterday with 4.26 per cent to sell for 49 Kobo, Custodian Investment appreciated by 4.17 per cent to N10.00, NAHCO gained 3.41 per cent to quote at N39.40, The Initiates advanced by 3.37 per cent to N2.15, and FCMB improved by 3.25 per cent to N7.95.
On the other side of the coin, Cutix shed 8.55 per cent to trade at N5.99, ABC Transport depreciated by 8.33 per cent to 77 Kobo, Tantalizers lost 8.16 per cent to quote at 45 Kobo, Red Star Express dropped 5.28 per cent to N3.95 per cent, and Coronation Insurance waned by 5.00 per cent to 76 Kobo.
Business Post reports that the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 36.19 points to 100,539.40 points from 100,503.21 points, and the market capitalisation jumped by N21 billion to N56.929 trillion from N56.908 trillion.
The volume of transactions, the value of trades, and the number of deals went up on the last trading day of the week by 53.74 per cent, 10.84 per cent, and 10.82 per cent, respectively.
This was because investors bought and sold 603.9 million equities valued at N9.2 billion in 9,988 deals on Friday, in contrast to the 392.8 million equities worth N8.3 billion transacted in 9,013 deals on Thursday.
FCMB emerged the most active during the session with 114.1 million shares sold for N896.1 million, Jaiz Bank transacted 103.4 million equities for N224.5 million, United Capital traded 56.8 million stocks valued at N2.3 billion, GTCO exchanged 37.6 million equities worth N1.7 billion, and Universal Insurance traded 33.4 million shares valued at N11.4 million.