By Dipo Olowookere
The local stock market grew by 1.46 per cent on Monday following gains printed by Dangote Cement, GTBank, Lafarge Africa and 12 others.
The good results released by the likes of Dangote Cement and Lafarge Africa impressed investors, who bought their shares at the market during the session.
At the close of transactions, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 355.88 points to 24,783.61 points from 24,427.73 points, while the market capitalisation expanded by N180 billion to N12.923 trillion from N12.743 trillion.
Dangote Cement was the highest price gainer yesterday, gaining N7.60 to sell at N141.80 per unit, while GTBank grew by N1.65 to close at N23.30 per share.
Furthermore, Lafarge Africa appreciated by N1.05 to finish at N12 per unit, Zenith Bank rose by 40 kobo to settle at N15.90 per unit, while UBA gained 15 kobo to sell at N6.15 per share.
Conversely, Seplat was the biggest price loser on Monday. The share price of the energy stock depreciated by N34.70 to sell at N312.70 per share.
CAP lost N1.85 to finish at N17.10 per unit, Julius Berger went down by N1.05 to N16 per share, Berger Paints declined by 60 kobo to close at N5.50 per share, while Cadbury Nigeria depreciated by 55 kobo to sell at N6.70 per share.
The activity chart was mixed yesterday with the volume of stocks transacted by market participants down by 2.41 per cent to 170.0 million units from 174.2 million units.
However, the value of the transactions was flat at N2.4 billion, while the number of deals increased by 16.47 per cent to 4,336 from 3,723.
Shares of Flour Mills were the most attractive to investors on Monday and the company traded 30.5 million units worth N518.1 million during the session.
Lafarge Africa transacted 28.1 million shares for N335.8 million, FBN Holdings traded 10.0 million stocks valued at N49.8 million, GTBank exchanged 9.0 million equities for N201.6 million, while UBA traded 8.3 million units worth N50.4 million.
For the sectoral performance, the banking and industrial goods indices closed higher by 3.71 per cent and 3.34 per cent respectively.
The oil/gas sector lost 5.70 per cent on Monday, while the insurance counter depreciated by 1.81 per cent, with the consumer goods index down by 0.32 per cent.
