By Dipo Olowookere
The first trading session of the week on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited ended on a positive note on Monday with a 0.19 per cent appreciation.
This upward trend was buoyed by buying interests in local stocks as investors recalibrate their portfolios for the last quarter of the year.
Business Post observed that the insurance and industrial goods sectors experienced profit-taking yesterday, leading to their respective declines of 0.50 per cent and 0.14 per cent.
However, the banking space grew by 0.81 per cent, the consumer goods index appreciated by 0.40 per cent, and the energy counter went up by 0.22 per cent.
At the close of transactions, the All-Share Index (ASI) improved its value by 186.16 points to settle at 97,706.70 points compared with the preceding session’s 97,520.54 points, and the market capitalization gained N107 billion to finish at N56.146 trillion versus last Friday’s N56.039 trillion.
Fidelity Bank was the best-performing stock during the trading day after it chalked up 10.00 per cent to quote at N14.30, ABC Transport increased by 9.76 per cent to close at N1.35, Livestock Feeds also grew by 9.76 per cent to N3.60, Regency Alliance Insurance expanded by 8.70 per cent to 50 Kobo, and Ellah Lakes jumped by 8.44 per cent to N4.88.
The worst-performing stock for the session was SCOA Nigeria, which shed 10.00 per cent to close at N1.71, Berger Paints fell by 9.95 per cent to quote at N19.00, Tripple G depreciated by 9.64 per cent to N2.25, Guinness Nigeria crumbled by 8.33 per cent to 44 Kobo, and Thomas Wyatt declined by 7.58 per cent to N1.83.
When trading activities finished for the day, the bourse was with 28 price gainers and 24 price losers, indicating a positive market breadth index and bullish sentiment.
As for the activity chart, it was mixed on the first trading session of the week, with the trading value flat and the trading volume and the number of deals up by 308.08 per cent and 18.95 per cent, respectively.
Investors transacted 1.3 billion equities valued at N6.0 billion in 10,424 deals during the session, in contrast to the 320.7 million equities worth N6.0 billion traded in 8,763 deals in the previous trading day.
Tantalizers was the busiest stock for selling 1.0 billion units valued at N450.6 million, UBA traded 38.1 million units worth N1.1 billion, Access Holdings exchanged 23.4 million units for N459.7 million, Caverton sold 21.6 million units worth N56.6 million, and GTCO transacted 16.0 million units valued at N776.4 million.