13 Stocks Keep Local Bourse Bullish by 0.91%

By Dipo Olowookere

Activities on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed positive on Friday by 0.91 percent, thanks to the gains recorded by 13 equities led by MTN Nigeria.

It was observed that there were more laggards than the risers during the session, which left the market breadth negative with 13 price gainers in contrast to 16 price losers.

Also, the level of activity reduced as the market closed with 325.0 million shares worth N3.6 billion traded by participants in contrast to 387.2 million equities valued at N5.0 billion exchanged on Thursday.

During the trading day, news came in that the inflation rate for December 2019 increased to 11.98 percent, but this did not deter the All-Share Index (ASI) from rising by 266.39 points to 29,618.52 points. The market capitalisation also increased by N114 billion to settle at N15.256 trillion.

MTN Nigeria ended the session on top of the gainers’ log with a price appreciation of N3.60 to close at N126.60 per unit, while GTBank followed with a gain of N1.15 to settle at N33.50 per share.

Stanbic IBTC improved by N1 to end at N42.50 per unit, UAC Nigeria appreciated by 70 kobo to close at N10.70 per unit, while Zenith Bank jumped by 50 kobo to N22.30 per share.

On the flip side, Unilever Nigeria took the first spot on the losers’ chart after its share price dropped 30 kobo to finish at N18.50 per unit.

Lafarge Africa lost 15 kobo to settle at N15.80 per share, UBA fell by 10 kobo to trade at N8.80 per share, Union Bank also slipped by 10 kobo to sell at N6.05 per unit, while NEM Insurance went down by 9 kobo to quote at N1.96 per unit.

Business Post reports that the most active stock during the session was UBA, with a turnover of 65.7 million units of its stocks sold for N584.8 million.

Access Bank traded 47.5 million equities worth N495.5 million, Zenith Bank transacted 38.3 million stocks valued at N844.9 million, FCMB exchanged 21.2 million shares for N41.3 million, while Omatek Ventures transacted 20 million units worth N8.2 million.