Blue-Chip Stocks Expand Investors’ Wealth by N85bn

By Dipo Olowookere

Investors further gained N85 billion at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday, following buy interests in some blue-chip equities at the market.

During the session, the market capitalisation of the exchange expanded to N12.441 trillion from N12.356 trillion after the N85 billion growth.

The positive performances of these bellwether stocks, which further lifted the market higher by 0.77 percent, increased the All-Share Index (ASI) by 183.48 points to 23,892.92 points from 23,709.44 points.

Business Post reports that there were 18 price gainers and 14 price losers yesterday, with the advancers led by Nestle Nigeria, which added N40 to its share price to close at N1,040 per unit.

Dangote Cement increased its share value by N2.50 to sell at N146 per share, GTBank gained 55 kobo to trade at N22 per unit, Zenith Bank rose by 30 kobo to quote at N15.40 per share, while Fidson appreciated by 23 kobo to settle at N2.62 per share.

Leading the decliners’ club on Thursday was Custodian Investment, which lost 60 kobo to settle at N5.70 per unit and was followed by International Breweries, which fell by 20 kobo to sell at N4.80 per share.

Lafarge Africa depreciated by 20 kobo to quote at N10.80 per unit, NEM Insurance declined by 16 kobo to finish at N2 per unit, while AIICO Insurance crashed by 7 kobo to trade at 86 kobo per share.

A look at the sectoral performance showed that only the insurance sector closed negative with a 1.92 percent loss, while the energy sector closed flat.

The consumer goods counter was the best performing sector with 1.51 percent growth. The banking index gained 1.39 percent, while the industrial goods index rose by 0.34 percent.

The level of activity at the market on Thursday improved as the volume and value of trades, with the number of deals increasing by 14.76 percent, 51.19 percent and 27.12 percent respectively.

A total of 182.7 million stocks valued at N2.3 billion exchanged hands in 4,542 deals yesterday compared with the 159.2 million equities worth N1.5 billion transacted the previous day in 3,573 deals.

Zenith Bank was the most active stock at the market. The lender traded at total of 27.3 million units worth N413.3 million at the session.

GTBank transacted 24.6 million shares valued at N540.7 million, FBN Holdings exchanged 18.8 million units for N92.8 million, Custodian Investment transacted 15.2 million equities valued at N95.4 million, while Fidson traded 11.4 million shares worth N27.2 million.