Diamond Bank, others lift NSE Index as global stocks plunges

By Odunewu Segun

Diamond Bank and other consumer stocks lifted the Nigerian Stock Exchange index as trading closed on Friday, gaining 0.34%.

Sectorial Performances was led by banking sector with 0.49% growth, Consumer Goods sector with 0.48% surge. Industrial and Oil and Gas sector also recorded growth.

Diamond Bank was the most actively traded stock with 118million units of shares accounting for 25% of total volume.

Price movement chart showed UBN adding 9.59%, while Transnational Corporation soared by 7.89%, Skye Bank depreciating by 9.38%, while JAIZ Bank dropped 9.35%.

In the day’s early trade, total volume and total value increased by 237% and 124% respectively compared to the previous trading session, as investors have exchanged 479million units of shares worth N2.76billlion.

Meanwhile, world stocks were set for their 10th straight week of gains on Friday, January 26, while the euro jumped more than half a percent as comments by U.S. officials this week advocating their support for a weak dollar reverberated through currency markets.

European shares edged up in early deals, with the pan-European STOXX index up 0.3 percent, although they were set for their first weekly drop this year as a rally in the euro weighed.

Earlier in Asia, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS rose 0.25 percent for the day, led by gains in Chinese financial and property shares.

It headed for its 11th straight day of gains, the longest sequence since 2015, and also for seventh straight week of gains for the first time since 2010.

Japan’s Nikkei .N225 ended down 0.2 percent. World equity markets have rallied over the past year, buoyed by a synchronized uptick in global economic growth in a boon to corporate profits and stock valuations.

The Dow .DJI and S&P 500 .SPX ended at their highest closing levels ever on Thursday although Wall Street relinquished bigger intraday gains after President Donald Trump said he wanted a stronger dollar.

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The dollar index .DXY, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, last stood at 88.89. The euro meanwhile had risen half a percent to trade just below its December 2014 high of above $1.25 hit on Thursday. EUR=EBS

Another big mover in currencies on Friday was Britain’s pound, which rose as much as 1 percent after stronger than expected GDP numbers for the fourth quarter.