After four days of impressive performance, the Nigerian equities market closed red on Friday despite heightened market activity, with trading volume and value rising during the trading session.
Data from the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) on the market’s assessment indices indicated that trading volume and value rose by 14.95% and 30.28% respectively, even as trading activity was buoyant as a total of 434.71 million units were exchanged for N16.16 billion across 23,689 trades.
The data reflected that during the local bourse’s sectoral performance was mixed, with three of the five sectors closing lower while two ended in positive territory.
According to the NGX, the Oil & Gas index led the gainers’ chart due to sustained investor buying interest in ARADEL, which dominated the value traded chart, contributing 54% of total turnover after exchanging N8.79 billion while ARADEL’s share price rose by 2.79% to close at N545 at the close of the trading session.
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The Banking index followed, rising by 0.97% based on price gains in ZENITHBANK (+1.49%), ACCESSCORP (+1.32%), FIDELITYBK, FIRSTHOLDCO, and GTCO.
On the downside, the Industrial Goods sector led losers’ chart, declining by 1.39% as DANGCEM dipped by 3.18% to close at N511.20. Similarly, the Insurance sector also declined, weighed down by MBENEFIT (-7.80%), LASACO (-5.97%), and LINKASSURE (-2.80%), among others.
The Consumer Goods rounded off the losers’ chart, with depreciation in INTBREW, PZ, and UNIONDICON stocks outweighing gains in NB MCNICHOLS and VITAFOAM.
The NGX report further showed that REGALINS and ETRANZACT stocks continued their strong run, each gaining 9.93%, as sustained investor interest driven by their positive corporate performance; REGALINS with its bonus share declaration and ETRANZACT with its ongoing e-invoicing contract from FIRS, which is keeping investor interest high on the stock.
Despite the weakened breadth of 1.48x, down from 3.42x, as 31 decliners outnumbered 21 advancers, overall, the market sentiment remained positive at the close of trading on Friday.
