Equities Sustain Positive Momentum With N117b Gain

By Dipo Olowookere

For the second time this year, the local stock market closed in the green zone on Friday, consolidating on the previous day’s growth by 1.06 percent.

The All-Share Index (ASI) of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), which closed at 29,517.73 points on Thursday, finish at 29,830.70 points yesterday after growing by 312.97 points.

Also, the market capitalisation, which ended the previous session at N11.007 trillion, appreciated by N117 billion to settle at N11.124 trillion.

Gains were recorded on Friday by Dangote Cement, Guinness Nigeria, Forte Oil, Dangote Flour, CCNN and 25 others.

Dangote Cement appreciated by N5.50k to close at N177 per share, while Guinness Nigeria grew by N3 to settle at N66 per share.

Forte Oil went up by N1 to close at N29 per share, Dangote Flour increased its share value by 55 kobo to end at N6.25k per share, while CCNN also rose by 55 kobo to quote at N20 per share.

Business Post reports that only five companies recorded losses at the nation’s bourse on Friday and were led by Seplat, which crashed by N64 to finish at N576 per share.

Nigerian Breweries went down by N1 to end at N78 per share, while Custodian Investment moved down by 50 kobo to close at N5.30k per share.

UAC of Nigeria dropped 30 kobo to end at N8.70k per share, while Unity Bank depleted by 7 kobo to settle at 83 kobo per share.

Despite the 1.06 percent growth achieved by the market yesterday, the volume and value of shares transacted by investors depreciated by 46.46 percent and 10.42 percent respectively.

While the volume of equities traded decreased from 385.3 million to 206.3 million, the value declined from N3.1 billion to N2.8 billion.

Diamond Bank emerged as the most transacted stock at the market on Friday with a turnover of 30.4 million units sold for N61 million.

UBA traded 26.5 million shares worth N192.8 million, while Zenith Bank exchanged 19 million stocks valued at N408.9 million. FBN Holdings sold 18.9 million equities worth N135.7 million, while Transcorp transacted 17.2 million shares valued at N21.6 million.