By Dipo Olowookere
The equities market posted a marginal growth of 0.02 per cent on Tuesday to put an end to the four consecutive losses caused by profit-taking.
Though cautious trading remained at the ecosystem, gains recorded in the consumer goods, insurance and the energy sectors contributed to the return of the bulls to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) at the session.
Business Post reports that the growth achieved by the consumer goods, insurance and the energy indices by 0.88 per cent, 0.34 per cent and 0.11 per cent respectively erased the 1.18 per cent loss printed by the banking space. The industrial goods counter ended flat on Tuesday.
At the close of transactions, the All-Share Index (ASI) appreciated by 6.55 points to settle at 28,344.04 points as against 28,337.49 points of Monday, while the market capitalisation rose by N3 billion to finish at N14.815 trillion in contrast to N14.812 trillion of the previous day.
A total of 18 stocks were on the price gainers’ list when market activities were wrapped up yesterday, with Stanbic IBTC on top after garnering N1.50 to settle at N44 per share.
Nigerian Breweries gained 50 kobo to quote at N49.10 per unit, International Breweries appreciated by 41 kobo to sell for N4.70 per share, Eterna chalked up 39 kobo to trade at N4.38 per unit, while Cadbury Nigeria added 10 kobo to its value to close at N7.25 per share.
On the losers’ chart were 15 equities, with GTBank occupying the top spot after going down by 75 kobo to settle for the day at N29.55 per share.
Custodian Investment depreciated by 25 kobo to N5 per unit, eTranzact lost 23 kobo to quote at N2.12 per unit, Africa Prudential fell by 21 kobo to finish at N5.39 per share, while UBA declined by 20 kobo to end at N6.60 per unit.
The activity level was mixed on Tuesday as a result of the 45.14 per cent increase in the trading volume and the 0.81 per cent and 5.31 per cent decline in the trading value and number of deals respectively.
A total of 535.8 million shares worth 5.0 billion stocks were traded in 4,498 deals at the trading day compared with the 369.2 million equities worth N5.1 billion transacted in 4,750 deals on Monday.
Regency Alliance was the most traded stock by volume on Tuesday as the company transacted 245.8 million equities valued at N49.2 million.
GTBank sold 100.3 million stocks valued at N3.0 billion, UBA traded 33.0 million equities for N220.0 million, FBN Holdings exchanged 15.4 million shares worth N95.0 million, while Transcorp sold 15.4 million units worth N9.9 million.
Adedapo Adesanya