By Dipo Olowookere
The local stock market marginally closed in the green territory on Tuesday despite the awful performances of some large cap equities.
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed 0.09 percent higher yesterday to consolidate gains recorded in the previous session.
Market heavyweights like Dangote Cement, Zenith Bank, Nestle and other posted losses on Tuesday, but despite this development, the Nigerian bourse remained positive.
Business Post observed that apart from the consumer goods index, which declined by 0.71 percent, every other sector finished on a high note.
The banking index rose by 0.21 percent, the industrial goods by 0.22 percent, the oil/gas index by 0.39 percent and the insurance index by 1.03 percent.
The market breadth, which closed positive yesterday, recorded 21 price gainers against 12 price losers.
Beta Glass outshone others after adding N6 to its share value to finish the day at N66 per unit.
It was followed by Stanbic IBTC, which rose by 90 kobo to end at N46.90k per share, and NASCON, which improved by 40 kobo to close at N17.90k per share.
GTBank appreciated by 25 kobo to quote at N34.10k per share, while Oando garnered 15 kobo to swell to N5 per share.
On the flip side, Dangote Cement suffered a loss of 50 kobo to lead the losers’ chart on Tuesday and close at N189.50k per share.
Closely following were Dangote Sugar, which went down by 45 kobo to end at N13.50k per share, and Zenith Bank, which reduced by 15 kobo to finish at N22.75k per share.
NAHCO slipped by 13 kobo to reduce to N3.32k per share, while Nestle Nigeria deflated to N1420 per unit after a reduction of 10 kobo from its share price.
At the close trading yesterday, it was observed that the All-Share Index (ASI) increased 28.52 points to finish at 30,773.57 points, just as the market capitalisation advanced by N11 billion to settle at N11.476 trillion.
Though there was a slight rebound in the volume of shares transacted on Tuesday when compared with Monday, the increase in the value of equities traded was significant.
Business Post reports that the volume of equities that exchanged hands yesterday move from 184 million units to 190.32 million units, representing 3.62 percent, while the value jumped to N2.9 billion from N1.1 billion, indicating 181.19 percent improvement.
GTBank was investors toast on Tuesday, leading the activity chart with a total turnover of 49.2 million shares sold for N1.7 billion.
Zenith Bank exchanged 20.7 million shares worth N473.3 million, while FBN Holdings traded 18.9 million units valued at N140.9 million.
Fidelity Bank transacted 15.6 million equities worth N37.2 million, while Transcorp traded 18.1 million shares worth N16.9 million.
Adedapo Adesanya