NGX Group trading floor The Nigerian bourse touched its peak volume level in months on Friday, with strength coming from tremendous trade activities in the shares of First Bank Holdings, which also reported its biggest daily volume since the inception of the year, accounting for 76 per cent of the total number of shares traded.
Trade has been significantly subdued in recent times especially for want of foreign inflow into equity investment compounded by Nigeria’s deteriorating forex crisis. The bumper improvement in liquidity recorded on Friday did not appear sustainable, given that it was triggered by a single stock and not broad-based.
Okomu, Zenith, Access and GTCO especially helped stocks’ general performance, helping the benchmark index up by 0.23 per cent.
Market breath, often used by market watchers to weigh investors’ sentiment, was positive as 24 gainers emerged relative to 12 laggards.
The all-share index went up 88.15 points to 38,962.28, while the market capitalisation expanded to N20.3 trillion.
Since the start of the year, the index has been down 3.25 per cent. TOP FIVE GAINERS
Pharma Deko topped the gainers’ chart, appreciating by 9.74 per cent to close at N2.14. Sovereign Trust climbed up by 8.70 per cent to N0.25.
Okomu Oil added 5.77 per cent to end trade at N110. Eterna advanced by 4.95 per cent to N7. Champion Breweries rose to N2, notching up 4.71 per cent in the process. TOP FIVE LOSERS
SCOA led laggards, declining by 9.38 per cent to close at N0.87. Presco shed 8.18 per cent to end trade at N73. Regal Insurance fell to N0.44, losing 6.38 per cent.
Total slumped to N192, recording 3.61 per cent decline. UBA closed at N7.50, going down by 1.96 per cent. TOP FIVE TRADES
Altogether, 633.5 million shares valued at N6.4 billion were traded in 3,228 deals.FBN Holding was the most active stock with 481.5 million of its shares worth N3.6 million traded in 122 deals. A total of 16.6 million units of ETI shares, priced at N87.8 million, changed hands in 25 transactions. Zenith had 12 million shares valued at N279 million traded in 275 deals.Access traded 11.6 million shares estimated at N100.9 million in 199 transactions. Transcorp traded 9.3 million shares valued at N8.7 million in 61 deals.