By Dipo Olowookere
The value of stocks on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), captured by the market capitalisation, increased on Thursday by N17 billion to N12.947 trillion from N12.930 trillion on Wednesday.
Business Post reports that the equity market printed a 0.13 percent growth yesterday with renewed buying interest witnessed during the session as a result of inability of some investors to buy treasury bills the previous day.
On Wednesday, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) auctioned T-bills worth N150.6 billion, but received subscriptions valued at N533.9 billion. Some of the excess amount of from treasuries market chased some value stocks at the local bourse yesterday, especially in the banking and the energy sectors.
This resulted in the banking index rising by 0.65 percent and the energy index growing by 0.68 percent. However, the consumer goods index fell by 0.30 percent, the industrial goods index dropped 0.14 percent, while the insurance index slightly went down by 0.01 percent,
At the close of transactions, the All-Share Index (ASI) improved by 34.4 points to settle at 26,824.50 points from 26,790.10 points, while the year-to-date loss reduced to 14.66 percent.
The volume of shares transacted by investors increased yesterday by 60.02 percent from 189.7 million to 303.8 million, while the value of the trades rose by 15.93 percent from N1.5 billion to N1.7 billion. However, the number of deals decreased by 7.60 percent from 3,410 to 3,151.
Law Union was the most active stock, trading 151.7 million units worth N91.3 million, while UBA followed with 20.4 million units valued at N142.6 million.
Access Bank sold 12.4 million shares valued at N111.7 million, Mutual Benefits traded 11.1 million equities for N2.2 million, while Zenith Bank exchanged 19.4 million shares worth N193.1 million.
A total of 19 stocks led by Cadbury Nigeria appreciated in price on Thursday, while 13 equities led by Dangote Sugar closed with their prices declining.
Cadbury Nigeria gained 90 kobo to close at N9.90 per share, GlaxoSmithKline rose by 55 kobo to finish at N6.25 per unit, UAC Nigeria gained 50 kobo to settle at N7.50 per share, FBN Holdings improved by 30 kobo to trade at N6.80 per unit, while Oando garnered 22 kobo to quote at N3.72 per share.
On the flip side, Dangote Sugar lost 70 kobo to finish at N13.80 per share, C&I Leasing depreciated by 65 kobo to end at N5.95 per unit, Dangote Cement fell by 60 kobo to settle at N143 per unit, Jaiz Bank declined by 6 kobo to close at 63 kobo per share, while Livestock Feeds decreased by 4 kobo to end at 51 kobo per share.
Adedapo Adesanya