Naira Gains Confidence on Low Forex Transactions at Spot Market

By Dipo Olowookere

The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited witnessed significant buying interests in financial, consumer goods and energy stocks on Friday.

Business Post reports that Ecobank, Access Bank, UBA, Total Energies, Ardova and 34 others attracted the patronage of both local and offshore investors during the session.

At the close of trading activities, the market closed higher by 0.43 per cent, with the All-Share Index (ASI) rising by 195.82 points to 46,205.05 points from 46,009.23 points and the market capitalisation growing by N105 billion to N24.898 trillion from N24.793 trillion.

The best-performing stock yesterday was Cornerstone Insurance, which gained 10.00 per cent to trade at 55 kobo, Vitafoam grew by 9.91 per cent to N24.40, Ecobank appreciated by 9.62 per cent to N13.10, Academy Press rose by 9.30 per cent to 94 kobo, NEM Insurance appreciated by 9.06 per cent to N3.49.

A total of seven equities shed weight on Friday, with University Press on top of the losers’ chart after losing 9.86 per cent to sell for N2.65.

Consolidated Hallmark Insurance depreciated by 7.69 per cent to 60 kobo, Cutix fell by 4.00 per cent to N2.40, Linkage Assurance went down by 1.92 per cent to 51 kobo, while Eterna depleted by 1.48 per cent to N6.01.

During the session, the trading volume rose by 12.17 per cent to 313.5 million units from 279.4 million units, the trading value appreciated by 82.20 per cent to N5.0 billion from N2.8 billion, while the number of deals appreciated by 10.58 per cent to 5,067 deals from 4,582 deals.

FBN Holdings was the busiest stock at the exchange on Friday, selling 40.7 million units valued at N468.7 million, trailed by Transcorp, which traded 30.9 million units worth N34.1 million.

Zenith Bank exchanged 26.7 million shares worth N688.1 million, GTCO transacted 20.9 million stocks valued at N536.5 million, while Access Bank traded 19.0 million equities worth N188.1 million.

As for the sectoral performance, the industrial goods sector lost 0.01 per cent, while the banking, energy, insurance and the consumer goods sectors appreciated by 2.30 per cent, 2.22 per cent, 1.61 per cent and 0.81 per cent respectively.