The bears are preparing a comeback into the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited and their impact is already being felt by investors.
Customs Street escaped by the whiskers yesterday after a fierce battle between the bulls and the bears, closing higher by a marginal 0.02 per cent.
Data showed that 31 stocks ended on the gainers’ chart and 30 stocks finished on the losers’ table, indicating a positive market breadth index and bullish investor sentiment.
Prestige Assurance improved its share price by 9.84 per cent to N1.34, NCR Nigeria grew by 9.64 per cent to N25.60, Aso Savings expanded by 9.57 per cent to N1.03, Guinea Insurance also soared by 9.57 per cent to N1.26, and the Initiates advanced by 8.81 per cent to N10.99.
On the flip side, Union Dicon declined by 10.00 per cent to N6.30, Tripple Gee gave up 9.98 per cent to N4.42, ABC Transport crashed by 9.91 per cent to N3.82, Regency Alliance slumped by 9.60 per cent to N1.13, and Sovereign Trust Insurance shrank by 7.32 per cent to N2.91.
The financial services sector was under selling pressure on Friday, with the banking index down by 1.40 per cent and the insurance counter down by 0.05 per cent.
However, the other sectors sustained their buying pressure, with the industrial goods space growing by 1.39 per cent. The energy index expanded by 0.09 per cent, the commodity space increased by 0.08 per cent, and the consumer goods industry rose by 0.06 per cent.
At the close of business, the All-Share Index (ASI) jumped by 32.42 points to 147,013.59 points from 146,981.17 points and the market capitalisation chalked up N21 billion to settle at N93.502 trillion compared with the N93.481 trillion it ended a day earlier.
A total of 4.9 billion stocks valued at N42.3 billion exchanged hands in 24,152 deals during the session versus the 599.7 million stocks worth N22.7 billion traded in 23,675 deals on Thursday, showing a rise in the trading volume, value, and number of deals by 717.08 per cent, 86.34 per cent, and 2.02 per cent apiece.
The spike in the volume of transactions was due to the 4.2 billion shares of Cornerstone Insurance worth N21.4 billion traded yesterday. It topped the activity chart with that transaction.
Access Holding followed with the sale of 132.6 million units valued at N3.0 billion, Sterling Holdings exchanged 77.2 million units for N592.6 million, Fidelity Bank transacted 63.1 million units valued at N1.2 billion, and FCMB sold 57.6 million units worth N624.7 million.