By Dipo Olowookere
Transactions closed bullish on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) for the first time this week on Wednesday after two successive losses.
The equity market appreciated during the midweek session by 0.17 percent, shrinking the year-to-date loss to 6.96 percent at the close of business.
Stocks in the consumer goods sector were mainly responsible for lifting the exchange from the danger zone yesterday as the space grew by 4.19 percent.
The oil/gas sector was the heaviest loser of the session, depreciating by 4.37 percent as a result of profit taking. The insurance index followed with a decline of 2.95 percent, the banking space depreciated by 0.79 percent, while the industrial goods counter closed flat.
However, by the time transactions were halted for the day, the All-Share Index (ASI) went up by 42.06 points to settle at 24,972.94 points, while the market capitalisation increased by N21 billion to close at N13.027 trillion.
Business Post observed that there was a huge sell off in the shares of GTBank at the market yesterday, resulting in the company’s stock leading the activity chart with 43.7 million units of its stocks traded for N1.0 billion.
UAC Nigeria transacted 41.2 million units worth N288.7 million, FBN Holdings traded 35.4 million shares valued at N178.1 million, FCMB exchanged 22.5 million equities for N38.8 million, while Access Bank traded 15.4 million stocks for N104.5 million.
At the close of business, investors traded a total of 266.0 million shares worth N2.7 billion in 3,564 deals on Wednesday as against the 200.4 million equities worth N1.6 billion transacted on Tuesday in 4,194 deals.
This indicated that while the volume and value of trades improved by 32.72 percent and 70.81 percent respectively, the number of deals depreciated by 15.02 percent.
On the price movement chart, Nestle Nigeria was the biggest price gainer, appreciating by N99.50 to settle at N1094.50 per unit.
Flour Mills gained 85 kobo to close at N20.40 per unit, Cadbury Nigeria rose by 50 kobo to end at N8 per share, Access Bank improved by 10 kobo to finish at N6.85 per unit, while Zenith Bank appreciated by 50 kobo to close at N16.15 per share.
On the flip side, Seplat suffered the heaviest loss at the market on Wednesday. The stock price of the energy firm went down by N47.60 to N428.80 per share.
GTBank depreciated by 60 kobo to sell at N23 per share, Dangote Sugar fell by 30 kobo to close at N14.50 per unit, Fidson declined by 23 kobo to quote at N3.40 per share, while Neimeth lost 20 kobo to trade at N1.89 per unit.
Adedapo Adesanya