By Dipo Olowookere
The stock market gained 0.09 per cent on Wednesday, raising the All-Share Index (ASI) of the Nigerian Exchange higher by 34.32 points to 38,636.15 points from 38,601.83 points.
Business Post observed that the renewed buying pressure on stocks like Guinness Nigeria, MTN Nigeria, Zenith Bank and 11 others contributed to the return of the bulls to the market.
This increased the market capitalisation of the exchange yesterday by N18 billion to N20.219 trillion from N20.201 trillion it ended on Tuesday.
A look at how the sectors performed yesterday showed that only the consumer goods space closed positive with a 0.20 per cent growth.
The insurance counter depreciated by 2.20 per cent, the banking index lost 0.20 per cent, the oil/gas sector declined by 0.02 per cent, while the industrial goods counter went down by 0.01 per cent.
On the price movement chart, Guinness Nigeria topped the gainers’ log with a price appreciation of 9.96 per cent to trade at N26.50. A day earlier, the stock contributed to the downfall of the market but it showed resilience yesterday to lift the bourse.
Meyer grew by 8.16 per cent to 53 kobo, Wema Bank appreciated by 5.26 per cent to trade at 60 kobo, Chams rose by 4.76 per cent to 22 kobo, while Caverton went up by 2.56 per cent to N2.00.
At the other end, Northern Nigerian Flour Mills topped the losers’ table as a result of the 10.00 per cent decline it suffered to close at N5.40.
Fidson depreciated by 9.89 per cent to N4.28, Cutix fell by 9.78 per cent to N2.03, Sterling Bank dropped 8.33 per cent to N1.65, while Coronation Insurance (Wapic) declined by 8.00 per cent to 46 kobo.
On the activity chart, the trading volume rose by 33.16 per cent to 278.0 million units from 208.8 million units, while the trading value went down by 21.91 per cent to N2.3 billion from N2.9 billion, with the number of deals going down by 0.60 per cent to 3,987 deals from 4,011 deals.
Japaul was the most traded stock yesterday with the sale of 46.2 million units valued at N34.6 million, followed by UAC Nigeria, which traded 32.6 million units worth N311.5 million.
Fidelity Bank exchanged 28.5 million equities worth N70.7 million, Access Bank transacted 22.7 million stocks for N183.2 million, while Zenith Bank traded 19.6 million shares valued at N431.4 million.
Adedapo Adesanya