The first trading session of this week on Customs Street ended on a positive note, with a 0.36 per cent leap on Monday buoyed by buying pressure in some stocks.
Business Post reports that 50 equities ended on the gainers’ chart yesterday, offsetting the selling pressure on 30 other equities, indicating a positive market breadth index and strong investor sentiment.
Market participants are gradually getting accustomed to the extended trading window introduced last Monday, which stretched the closing hour to 4 pm from 2:30 pm.
The duo of FTN Cocoa and Consolidated Hallmark gained 10.00 per cent each to quote at N6.05 and N5.72 apiece, as CAP grew by 9.99 per cent to N159.70, Dangote Sugar increased by 9.97 per cent to N76.65, and RT Briscoe surged by 9.96 per cent to N11.70.
On the flip side, International Energy Insurance declined by 9.82 per cent to N2.48, UPDC shrank by 9.18 per cent to N4.45, Learn Africa moderated by 8.06 per cent to N8.55, NEM Insurance retreated by 8.02 per cent to N28.10, and Guinea Insurance tumbled by 7.83 per cent to N1.06.
Yesterday, the insurance index was up by 1.25 per cent, the industrial goods space expanded by 1.08 per cent, the consumer goods industry improved by 0.83 per cent, and the banking sector jumped by 0.41 per cent, while the energy counter contracted by 0.89 per cent.
At the close of business, the All-Share Index (ASI) of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited went up by 883.71 points to 243,161.52 points from 242,277.81 points, and the market capitalisation soared by N64 billion to N156.058 trillion from N155.994 trillion.
A total of 967.5 million shares worth N43.8 billion were traded by investors in 122,041 deals during the session compared with the 1.9 billion shares valued at N104.3 billion in 92,353 deals last Friday.
This indicated a leap in the number of deals by 32.15 per cent, and a drop in the trading volume and value by 49.08 per cent and 58.01 per cent, respectively.
Closing the day on top of the activity chart was Access Holdings with 182.7 million units sold for N4.7 billion, AIICO Insurance transacted 58.1 million units worth N264.2 million, Fidelity Bank exchanged 57.5 million units valued at N1.1 billion, Zenith Bank traded 48.9 million units worth N6.4 billion, and Chams sold 45.9 million units valued at N149.4 million.
