By Dipo Olowookere
The last trading day of the week on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited ended on a positive note with a 0.44 per cent growth.
The improvement recorded by Nigerian stocks yesterday was buoyed by bargain-hunting activities as a result of renewed buying interest in financial equities.
Data showed that the banking sector appreciated on Friday by 2.72 per cent, the insurance index grew by 1.41 per cent, the consumer goods counter gained 1.25 per cent and the industrial goods space expanded by 0.19 per cent, while the energy sector depreciated by 0.25 per cent.
When trading activities finished for the day, the All-Share Index (ASI) was up by 431.45 points to 97,456.62 points from 97,025.17 points and the market capitalisation added N248 billion to settle at N56.002 trillion versus Thursday’s closing value of N55.754 trillion.
Investor sentiment was bullish yesterday after the bourse closed with 33 price gainers and 20 price losers, indicating a positive market breadth index.
Flour Mills rose by 9.99 per cent to N54.50, Caverton improved by 9.96 per cent to N2.54, Ecobank appreciated by 9.95 per cent to N23.75, RT Briscoe grew by 9.94 per cent to N3.65, and UPDC jumped by 9.88 per cent to N1.78.
Conversely, DAAR Communications depreciated by 9.72 per cent to 65 Kobo, Deap Capital fell by 8.82 per cent to 93 Kobo, PZ Cussons depleted by 8.48 per cent to N15.65, Custodian Investment went down by 8.45 per cent to N13.00, and McNichols slumped by 8.44 per cent to N1.41.
The activity chart was mixed yesterday, with the trading volume up by 5.71 per cent as the trading value and the number of deals plunged by 18.75 per cent and 8.45 per cent, respectively.
A total of 412.9 million equities valued at N6.5 billion were traded in 8,803 deals during the session compared with the 390.6 million equities worth N8.0 billion transacted in 9,615 deals a day earlier.
Japaul ended the day on top of the activity log after selling 105.7 million shares for N274.5 million, FBN Holdings transacted 43.2 million equities worth N1.2 billion, Zenith Bank exchanged 28.6 million stocks valued at N1.1 billion, UBA traded 15.5 million equities worth N371.2 million, and Ecobank sold 14.6 million shares for N329.6 million.