Blue Chip Stocks Lift NSE Index by 0.86%

By Dipo Olowookere

The much needed breather at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) came on Friday after some blue chip equities rallied to put a halt to the recent downward trends.

This came a day after the release of the financial statements of FCMB for Q3 of this year, which improved investors’ confidence.

Yesterday, the market recorded a gain for the first time this week, appreciating by 0.86 percent and reducing the year-to-date loss to 19.27 percent.

The market capitalisation saw an improvement of N95 billion to settle at N11.271 trillion, while the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 262.62 points to close at 30,874.17 points.

Mobil Oil Nigeria, which led the gainers’ chart on Friday, added N15 to its share price to settle at N175 per share, while Nigerian Breweries trailed with a N3.20k appreciation to end at N82.60k per share.

Dangote Cement went up by N1.90k to finish at N186.90k per share, Total Nigeria grew by N1.50k to end at N198 per share, while UBA rose by 45 kobo to quote at N7.50k per share.

Conversely, CAP closed yesterday as the biggest loser after shedding N3.45k of its share value to stay at N31.50k per share.

It was followed by Stanbic IBTC, which reduced by N2 to settle at N48 per share, and Seplat, which lost 50 kobo to end at N589.50k per share.

Custodian Investment decreased by 40 kobo to close at N4.90k per share, while Eterna went down by 30 kobo to finish at N4.20k per share.

On the activity chart, the Financial Services sector dominated with a total turnover of 222.5 million shares traded for N1.5 billion, while the Consumer Goods sector trailed with 10.9 million equities sold for N347 million.

Diamond Bank was the most traded stock at the market on Friday, selling a total of 121.4 million units worth N78.8 million.

Following was FBN Holdings, which transacted 21.8 million shares valued at N152.6 million, and Zenith Bank, which exchanged 20.1 million equities for N463.5 million.

GTBank traded 16.7 million shares worth N571.2 million, while Access Bank transacted 11.4 million equities valued at N86.4 million.

At the close of the day, despite the growth recorded by the market, the volume and value of shares exchanged by investors reduced by 43.52 percent and 46.34 percent respectively.

A total of 249.4 million shares worth N2.4 billion were traded by investors yesterday compared with the 441.6 million equities valued at N4.5 billion transacted the previous day.