The first trading day of the week at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited ended in stalemate on Monday, though the key performance indicators were slightly up.
The All-Share Index (ASI) inched higher by 1.39 points to 149,437.88 points from last Friday’s 149,436.48 points and the market capitalisation was up by N3 billion to finish at N95.267 trillion compared with the previous trading session’s N95.264 trillion.
The financial services space was upbeat yesterday, with the banking index gaining 0.89 per cent and the insurance counter rising by 0.87 per cent.
However, the consumer goods segment performance badly, losing 0.79 per cent as the energy sector declined by 0.05 per cent, while the commodity and the industrial goods indices closed flat.
Business Post reports that investor sentiment was bullish during the session as there were 28 appreciating stocks and 23 depreciating stocks, representing a positive market breadth index.
Sovereign Trust Insurance led the gainers’ gang after it chalked up 10.00 per cent to sell for N3.74, Guinness Nigeria appreciated by 9.96 per cent to N239.50, Mecure Industries rose by 9.88 per cent to N41.70, First Holdco improved by 9.86 per cent to N34.55, and AIICO Insurance also expanded by 9.86 per cent to N3.79.
The losers’ group was led by Prestige Assurance after it gave up 10.00 per cent to finish at N1.53, FTN Cocoa lost 8.16 per cent to trade at N4.50, Guinea Insurance depreciated by 7.69 per cent to N1.08, Royal Exchange crashed by 7.25 per cent to N1.79, and Nigerian Breweries slipped by 6.86 per cent to N76.75.
A total of 553.2 million shares valued at N13.3 billion were transacted in 28,907 deals on Monday versus the 602.8 million shares worth N30.7 billion traded in 20,550 deals last Friday, indicating a shortfall in the trading volume and value by 8.23 per cent and 56.68 per cent apiece, and an improvement in the number of deals by 40.67 per cent.
FCMB was the most active stock with a turnover of 92.0 million equities valued at N964.0 million, Access Holdings sold 67.9 million shares for N1.4 billion, Consolidated Hallmark transacted 50.8 million equities worth N208.8 million, Fidelity Bank exchanged 35.8 million shares valued at N672.4 million, and Jaiz Bank traded 29.7 million stocks worth N134.1 million.