The Nigerian equities market at the close of the first business week eventually pulled out from a three day losing streak on the backdrop of bargain hunting activities. On Friday, the All-Share-Index gained 0.15% to close at 26,251.39 (26,212.09 Thursday).
Investor sentiment thus far in the new year has remained soft as was the case on Friday, closing at 0.8x as it paled compared to a 1.06x market breadth on Thursday. This came on the back of thirteen advancing stocks against sixteen decliners. Leading the band of gainers was UAC-PROP for the third consecutive time this week. It closed at N3.02 (N2.88 Thursday) on account of a 4.86% gain. FCMB followed with a 4.46% gain, trailed by OANDO (3.30%), ETERNA (3.13%) and ACCESS (2.28%).
Activity levels picked up on Friday with value traded rising from N898,7 million on Thursday to N1.5 billion on Friday. Similarly, the volume traded on Friday was 210.2 million, up from 137.7 million on Thursday. These all transpired in 2,659 deals, up from 2,488 on Thursday.
Likewise, market capitalization closed at 9,032 trillion, up from 9,018 trillion on Thursday.
Conversely, CADBURY slid 5.00% to close at N9.50 as it led the decliners’ chart. Oil & gas player, MOBIL followed with a similar decline of 5.00%, likewise NEM (5.00%) which closed at N0.95. Trailing after were UBN (-4.92%) and NAHCO (-4.90%).
A closer look at the chart revealed FIDELITYBK as the top traded by volume (25.1 million) while DIAMONDBNK (16.9 million), UCAP (11.0 million) TRANSCORP (10.9 million) and UBA (9.7 million) followed.
