Investors Dump Insurance, Oil/Gas Shares

THE Christmas and New Year seasons notwithstanding, discerning investors, determined to take advantage of low prices of shares to acquire equities of viable firms have begun to dump stocks of insurance and oil/gas firms and started jostling for those of banks and firms in the business of food and beverages.This development led to a sharp rise in All-Share Index at the close of business on Friday, appreciating by 737.32 points or 3.6 per cent to close at 20,763.26. Market capitalisation also increased to N6.543 trillion.Food/Beverages, which was the toast of investors, went up by 26.15 points or 4.6 per to close at 584.41 and banking appreciated by 10.82 points or 4.1 per cent to close at 273.90.However, insurance depreciated by 0.54 points or 0.3 per to close at 143.48 while oil/gas went down by 4.07 points or 1.8 per cent to close at 221.07.A total turnover of 1.55 billion shares worth N7.993 billion in 15,494 deals was recorded during the week, in contrast to a total of 1.3 billion stocks valued at N11.03 billion exchanged in the preceding week in 16,402 deals.Banking was the most active measured by turnover volume with 1.005 million shares worth N4.31 billion exchanged by investors in 8,350 deals. This was due to activity in the stocks of UBA and Fidelity Bank, whose shares accounted for 567.4 million or 56.4 per cent of the turnover.Insurance, boosted by activity in the shares of Universal Insurance Company and Guinea Insurance, followed on the week's activity chart with a turnover of 242.45 million shares valued at N140.1 million and traded in 573 deals.
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