By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited gained 0.55 per cent on Monday on the back of sustained bargain-hunting activities by investors, which took the bourse closer to the 100,000-point threshold.
Customs Street has crossed 100,000 points more than three times this year, but profit-taking activities by investors have always been the pullback.
In January, it crossed the psychological mark only to fall below the next month and then crossed again in March and crumbled in April.
This continued till June, when it went past 100,000 point and faltered the next month but picked itself up in the same month and going down again in July. It has remained below the threshold from the seventh month of 2024 till now.
On the first trading session of this week, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 544.57 points to 99,922.63 points from 99,378.06 points and the market capitalisation jumped by N330 billion to close at N60.572 trillion compared with the preceding session’s N60.242 trillion.
The day ended with 35 price gainers and 25 price losers, representing a positive market breadth index and strong investor sentiment.
Royal Exchange and Living Trust Mortgage Bank gained 10.00 per cent each to quote at 66 Kobo and N3.30 apiece, International Breweries grew by 9.90 per cent to N4.55, Guinea Insurance rose by 9.84 per cent to 67 Kobo, and Caverton expanded by 9.60 per cent to N2.17.
Conversely, University Press shed 9.81 per cent to settle at N3.77, Haldane McCall declined by 9.62 per cent to N4.70, International Energy Insurance slumped by 9.52 per cent to N1.33, ABC Transport shrank by 8.70 per cent to N1.05, and Sovereign Trust Insurance weakened by 8.24 per cent to 78 Kobo.
During the trading day, investors traded 740.9 million shares valued at N16.9 billion in 10,430 deals compared with the 544.2 million shares worth N10.6 billion traded in 8,464 deals last Friday, implying a surge in the trading volume, value, and number of deals by 36.15 per cent, 59.43 per cent and 23.23 per cent, respectively.
The most active stock for the session was Sterling Holdings with 197.0 million units sold for N955.5 million, Wema Bank transacted 150.5 million units valued at N1.3 billion, eTranzact exchanged 70.1 million units worth N473.2 million, Tantalizers traded 57.3 million units for N101.2 million, and Access Holdings transacted 20.5 million units valued at N491.9 million.
Business Post reports that the bears and the bulls battled for the control of the market yesterday, with the former grabbing three of the five key sectors of the bourse at the close of transactions.
The insurance space lost 0.96 per cent, the banking index went down by 0.06 per cent, and the energy counter decreased by 0.02 per cent.
However, the consumer goods sector improved by 1.24 per cent, and the industrial goods industry went up by 0.09 per cent.