Rising appetite for local equities, supported by assurances from banks of the possibility of dividend payouts this financial year, further strengthened the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Monday.
The domestic bourse gained 0.37 per cent on the first trading session of this week, with the All-Share Index (ASI) increasing by 441.43 points to 118,579.65 points from 118,138.22 points and the market capitalisation rising by N278 billion to N74.812 trillion from N74.534 trillion.
Business Post reports that all the key sectors of the market ended in green, with the insurance counter up by 1.90 per cent, and the commodity index up by 0.87 per cent.
Further, the consumer goods sector went up by 0.73 per cent, the banking counter increased by 0.62 per cent, the energy industry gained 0.43 per cent, and the industrial goods index improved by 0.19 per cent.
Yesterday, Customs Street ended with 46 price gainers and 22 price losers, implying a positive market breadth index and strong investor sentiment.
Neimeth, FTN Cocoa, Presco, Champion Breweries and Beta Glass topped the gainers’ table after thet chalked up 10.00 per cent each to quote at N4.07, N3.08, N1210.00, and N9.02, N303.60, respectively.
On the flip side, Julius Berger lost 7.48 per cent to finish at N117.50, Chams shed 5.09 per cent to sell for N2.05, Secure Electronic Technology crashed by 5.00 per cent to 57 Kobo, Multiverse declined by 4.66 per cent to N9.20, and Red Star Express slumped by 3.85 per cent to N7.50.
During the trading day, Fidelity Bank was the most active stock after it sold 141.7 million units valued at N2.7 billion, Zenith Bank transacted 46.3 million units worth N2.4 billion, Nigerian Breweries exchanged 38.1 million units for N2.2 billion, FTN Cocoa traded 38.0 million units valued at N115.9 million, and Access Holdings sold 37.9 million units worth N843.7 million.
At the close of business, a total of 653.7 million equities were bought and sold for N21.3 billion in 22,206 deals on Monday versus the 487.1 million equities worth N18.7 billion traded in 17,421 deals last Friday, representing an improvement in the trading volume, value, ad number of deals by 34.20 per cent, 13.90 per cent, and 27.47 per cent apiece.