Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
The equities market ended on a positive note on Wednesday despite the negative investor sentiment witnessed at the close of business, which left the local bourse finishing with 17 price losers and 16 price gainers.
It was observed that the bargain hunting by investors extended the rally recorded on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
By the time market wrapped up for the day, the nation’s stock exchange closed 0.73 percent, a situation slightly helped by the positive Q1 2019 results released by GTBank and Zenith Bank on Wednesday and Access Bank on Tuesday.
Business Post reports that the volume of shares transacted by investors yesterday declined by 32.78 percent from 321.4 million to 216 million, while the total went down by 30.69 percent from N4.7 billion to N3.2 billion.
There were huge interests in the shares of Access Bank during the midweek trade as investors mopped up the stock, leaving it to close as the day’s most actively traded equity with a turnover of 39.2 million units worth N259 million.
UBA followed with the sale of 24.2 million units of its stocks for N156.9 million, with LASACO Insurance traded 20.8 million units worth N6.3 million.
Zenith Bank exchanged 16.3 million equities valued at N342.5 million, while FCMB transacted 10.9 million shares for N20.6 million.
An cursory look at the major market indices yesterday indicated that the All-Share Index (ASI) appreciated by 224.62 points to settle at 29,970.86 points, while the market capitalisation increased by N84 billion to close at N11.257 trillion.
On the price movement chart, Nestle Nigeria emerged as the best performing stock after appreciating by N79.70k to close at N1580 per unit.
Dangote Cement rose by N2 to end at N188 per share, while Nigerian Breweries grew by 85 kobo to settle at N64.85k per share.
Access Bank gained 60 kobo to finish at N6.65k per share, while Dangote Flour appreciated by 30 kobo to quote at N10.40k per share.
