Equity investors smiled home on Wednesday after the Nigerian Exchange ,NGX, Limited rebounded by 0.24% to reverse the negative trend.
The local stock market appreciated at midweek following renewed bargain-hunting by traders, who re-invested in shares after booking profit in the last two previous sessions.
Business Post reports that the banking space surged by 2.46%, the energy counter rose by 0.26% and the consumer goods index gained 0.15%, while the insurance and the industrial goods sectors depreciated by 1.49% and 0.01%, respectively.
The buying pressure experienced during the trading day raised the All-Share Index ,ASI, by 233.36 points to 99,284.38 points from 99,051.02 points and increased the market capitalisation by N132 billion to N56.164 trillion from N56.032 trillion.
Eterna finished the session on top of the gainers’ log after it chalked up 9.80% to sell for N13.45, Red Star Express appreciated by 9.76% to N3.71, Stanbic IBTC grew by 9.62% to N57.00, Fidelity Bank soared by 8.00% to N10.80, and International Breweries increased by 7.84% to N3.99.
On the flip side, Oando lost 9.86% to trade at N12.80, Linkage Assurance depleted by 9.41% to 77 Kobo, Veritas Kapital waned by 8.70% to 63 Kobo, Sovereign Trust Insurance also went down by 8.70% to 42 Kobo, and Coronation Insurance slumped by 8.57% to 64 Kobo.
At the close of trading activities, 18 stocks appreciated and 24 stocks depreciated, implying a negative market breadth index and a weak investor sentiment.
A total of 308.1 million equities valued at N4.9 billion exchanged hands in 7,690 deals compared with the 316.9 million equities worth N7.3 billion traded in 7,978 deals a day earlier, indicating a decline in the trading volume, value, and the number of deals by 2.78%, 32.88%, and 3.61% apiece.
Fidelity Bank was the busiest yesterday after transacting 84.1 million shares worth N883.2 million, Oando sold 52.5 million stocks for N710.8 million, Veritas Kapital traded 19.4 million equities valued at N12.5 million, Unity Bank exchanged 12.0 million shares worth N15.4 million, and Transcorp transacted 11.1 million stocks valued at N117.7 million.
