By Dipo Olowookere
The last trading day of the week ended positive on Friday as equities extended the positive momentum of the previous session.
This was mainly influenced by the impressive third quarter earnings that came in during the week, which gave investors the appetite to pick up some shares that could yield good returns in the next few weeks.
At the close of transactions yesterday, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) was facing north by 0.70 percent, shrinking the year-to-date loss to 14.59 percent.
While the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 227.28 points to settle at 32,664.63 points, the market capitalisation rose by N83 billion to end at N11.925 trillion.
Business Post reports that despite the gains recorded at the market yesterday, the market breadth finished negative with 19 price losers and 18 price gainers.
The day’s highest price gainer was Dangote Cement, which added N4 to its share value to settle at N210 per share.
It was followed by Access Bank, which grew by 50 kobo to finish at N8.30k per share, and Guinness Nigeria, which also appreciated by 50 kobo to end at N79.50k per share.
Unilever Nigeria went up by 40 kobo to finish at N43.90k per share, while Zenith Bank garnered 35 kobo to close at N22.90k per share.
At the other side of the table, Nestle Nigeria claimed the top spot after going down by N30 to settle at N1370 per share.
Forte Oil’s share value reduced by N2.05k to close at N20.15k per share, while CAP went down by 95 kobo to end at N30.05k per share.
GlaxoSmithKline fell by 80 kobo to close at N12.70k per share, while PZ Cussons depreciated by 20 kobo to finish at N12.40k per share.
It was observed that while the volume of transactions recorded on Friday reduced by 27.89 percent, the value went up by 2.76 percent.
A total of 173.6 million shares were transacted by investors worth N3.8 billion compared with the 240.8 million equities valued at N3.7 billion sold the previous day.
These trades were dominated by the Financial Services sector, which exchanged 147.1 million stocks worth N3.3 billion, while the Consumer Goods followed with 13.4 million units sold for N276 million.
Hallmark Insurance emerged the most active stock yesterday, exchanging a total of 91.2 million equities valued at N25.5 million.
Fidelity Bank traded 14.5 million shares worth N27.3 million, while Access Bank transacted 10.5 million equities valued at N84.1 million.
FCMB exchanged 9.3 million units of its stock for N14.5 million, while Zenith Bank exchanged 8.6 million equities for N194.1 million.
Adedapo Adesanya