The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) started the year 2020 on a positive note after it appreciated by 0.10 percent on the first trading day of the decade on Thursday.
From observations, the local bourse was looking like it would kick off the year on a wrong foot, but stocks in the insurance space came to the rescue, closing as the only sub-sector of the exchange that ended strong by appreciating by 0.97 percent.
The energy sector lost 5.01 percent, industrial index depreciated by percent, banking index declined by 0.39 percent, while the consumer goods sector lost 0.10 percent.
The All-Share Index (ASI) appreciated during the session by 25.72 points to close at 26,867.79 points against 26,842.07 points in the last session, while the market capitalisation increased by N13 billion to N12.971 trillion from N12.958 trillion.
Seplat was the heaviest price loser, going down by N65.70 to finish at N592.10 per share, while Lafarge Africa depreciated by N1.50 to end at N13.80 per unit. Unilever Nigeria lost N1.30 to settle at N20.70 per share, Stanbic IBTC declined by N1 to close at N40 per share, while GlaxoSmithKline fell by 60 kobo to settle at N5.50 per share.
On the gainers’ chart, MTN Nigeria was the biggest price riser, appreciating by N4 to close at N109 per unit, while Dangote Sugar gained 40 kobo to settle at N14 per share.
FBN Holdings rose by 35 kobo to finish at N6.50 per share, Vitafoam increased its share value by 30 kobo to close at N4.70 per unit, while UAC Nigeria also appreciated by 30 kobo to end at N8.90 per share.
Despite the market closing bullish on Thursday, the level of activity was poor as the volume of traded equities went down by 74.93 percent to 264.1 million from 1.1 billion, while the value of stocks exchanged by investors reduced by 4.82 percent to N5.2 billion from N5.5 billion.
FBN Holdings was the most active stock, trading 60.3 million units worth N384.0 million, while Access Bank trailed with 33.5 million shares valued at N335.6 million.
Zenith Bank exchanged 30.9 million equities worth N578.2 million, UBA transacted 28.2 million shares valued at N202.6 million, while GTBank traded 18.9 million shares for N553.4 million.
