By Dipo Olowookere
For the third consecutive session, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed in the positive territory on Thursday, appreciating by 0.36 percent at the close of transactions.
The All-Share Index (ASI) improved during the session by 95.94 percent to close at 26,872.09 points, while the market capitalisation increased by N46.3 billion to settle at N12.970 trillion.
However, like in the previous session, the activity level was weak as the volume of shares transacted went down by 10.51 percent to 239.2 million units from 267.3 million units, while the value of the trades dropped by 25.39 percent to N2.3 billion from N3.0 billion, with the number of trades depreciating by 12.00 percent to 3,585 from 4,074.
FBN Holdings emerged as the most active stock at the market yesterday, transacting 74.0 million shares worth N558.4 million, while Transcorp followed with 19.2 million units valued at N19.6 million.
Zenith Bank traded 18.3 million equities for N342.5 million, GTBank exchanged 17.2 million stocks worth N506.2 million, while UBA transacted 14.2 million equities valued at N107.6 million.
Gains were posted by 21 stocks at the market yesterday, while a total of 12 equities suffered losses. Apart from the industrial goods sector, which recorded a 2.39 percent decline, the four other key sectors monitored printed growths.
The banking index rose by 0.05 percent, insurance index by 0.03 percent, consumer goods index by 0.57 percent and the oil/gas index by 1.08 percent.
Flour Mills was the most improved stock on Thursday in terms of price appreciation, garnering N1.60 to close at N17.85 per share, while Stanbic IBTC gained N1 to end at N40 per share.
MTN Nigeria appreciated by 95 kobo to finish at N120 per share, Dangote Cement rose by 90 kobo to settle at N144.90 per unit, while Dangote Sugar added 85 kobo to its share price to finish at N13.10 per unit.
On the other side of coin, CCNN emerged as the heaviest price decliner, going down by N2 to finish at N18 per unit and was trailed by Unilever Nigeria, which depreciated by N1.05 to close at N17.45 per share.
Zenith Bank declined by 20 kobo to close at N18.60 per share, UBA went down by 15 kobo to close at N7.60 per unit, while Lafarge Africa depleted by 10 kobo to end at N14.40 per unit.
Adedapo Adesanya