Naira still sluggish against Dollar as NSE indices up

The Naira sluggishly added N1 against the United States Dollar, exchanging at N364/$1, higher than the N365 posted on Friday at the parallel market.

It was also gathered that the Pound Sterling and the Euro closed at N470 and N430.

Trading at the Bureau De change (BDC) window saw the Naira closing at N362 to the dollar, while the Pound Sterling and the Euro traded at N470 and N430.

At the investors’ window, the Naira was sold at N360.39 to the dollar, while it exchanged at N305.8 to the dollar at the interbank market.

Traders said that activities at the market was yet to resume fully as most traders were yet to come back from the Sallah break.

Meanwhile, weekly equity transactions on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) resumed after the Eid-El-Kabir public holidays on the upbeat note, as the All-Share Index grew marginally by 0.03 per cent.

ALSO SEE: CBN uses $9bn to defend Naira in 7 months

National Daily gathered that the index rose by 11.29 points to close higher at 35,515.91 against the 35,504.62 achieved on Thursday Aug. 31. The market capitalisation, which opened at N12.237 trillion, rose by N4 billion or 0·03 per cent to close at N12.241 trillion.

An analysis of the price movement chart indicated that Guinness recorded the highest gain to lead the gainers’ table by N3.77 to close at N79.27 per share.

Mobil followed with a gain of N11.89 to close at N167.5, while ConOil appreciated by N1.3 to close at N29 per share. Forte Oil gained 7k to close at N49.7, while Zenith Bank increased by 35k to close at N23.35 per share.

Conversely, Total Oil topped the losers’ chart, losing N12 to close at N233 per share.

7UP trailed with a loss of N2 to close at N90, while International Breweries lost N1.43 to close at N35.57 per share.

Unilever depreciated by 58k to close at N38.71, while Cadbury shed by 57k to close at N10.9 per share.

The volume of shares traded, however, decreased by 25.11 per cent with an exchange of 199.58 million shares worth N4.52 billion traded in 3,728 deals. This was in contrast to the 266.51 million shares valued at N4.04 billion traded in 2,263 deals on Thursday.

Access Bank emerged the toast of investors, accounting for 58.63 million shares valued at N 561.29 million. It was followed by UBA with 26.28 million shares valued at N234.89 million.

Zenith Bank traded 15.53 million shares worth N359.93 million, while Stanbic IBTC sold 12.91 million shares worth N496.52 million.