By Dipo Olowookere
A marginal growth of 0.01 per cent was recorded by the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Thursday following sustained bargain-hunting in the shares of tier-1 banks and others.
The appreciation recorded by Customs Street yesterday was also influenced by the renewed confidence in Nigerian stocks, with the energy sector expanding by 5.71 per cent.
The banking space increased during the session by 1.12 per cent, the consumer goods space grew by 0.24 per cent, the insurance counter gained 0.11 per cent, and the industrial goods sector jumped by 0.01 per cent.
When trading activities closed for the day, the All-Share Index (ASI) went up by 10.57 points to 99,396.23 points from 99,385.44 points and the market capitalisation advanced by N7 billion to N56.228 trillion from N56.221 trillion.
The duo of Cutix and Seplat Energy topped the gainers’ table after rising by 10.00 per cent each to close at N4.40 and N3,794.90 apiece, Lasaco Assurance improved by 9.95 per cent to N2.32, CWG chalked up 9.85 per cent to N7.25, and United Capital gained 9.79 per cent to sell for N24.10.
Conversely, DAAR Communications lost 8.93 per cent to close at 51 Kobo, C&I Leasing declined by 8.54 per cent to N3.00, Consolidated Hallmark shrank by 7.98 per cent to N1.73, MTN Nigeria crashed by 6.89 per cent to N200.00, and Regency Alliance went down by 6.52 per cent to 43 Kobo.
GTCO was the most active stock on Thursday after trading 66.1 million units valued at N2.9 billion, UAC Nigeria transacted 46.4 million units worth N706.6 million, Access Holdings exchanged 39.7 million units valued at N754.2 million, Consolidated Hallmark sold 31.6 million units for N54.9 million, and Universal Insurance traded 30.8 million units worth N10.5 million.
At the close of trading activities, the trading volume rose by 91.53 per cent to 529.4 million shares from 276.4 million shares, the trading value rose by 156.10 per cent to N10.5 billion from N4.1 billion, and the number of deals grew by 0.25 per cent to 7,616 deals from 7,597 deals.