By Dipo Olowookere
Transactions at the headquarters of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Customs Street, Lagos, ended bullish last Friday as a result of gains posted by equities in the banking space.
Business Post reports that the banking index rose during the day by 3.91 percent on the back of price appreciation recorded by GTBank, Access Bank and other lenders on the local bourse.
This performance, coupled with 1.85 percent growth posted by industrial goods index and the 0.91 percent increase printed by the insurance sector, lifted the market by 0.48 percent to reduce the year-to-date loss to 16.28 percent.
At the close of business, the All Share Index (ASI) increased by 126.25 points to 26,314.49 points, while the market capitalisation appreciated by N61.5 billion to N12.810 trillion.
The market closed with a total of 19 price gainers and 12 price losers, with GTBank dominating the price risers’ chart after adding N1.60 to its share price to finish at N28.60 per unit.
CCNN gained N1.10 to finish at N17.50 per unit, Access Bank rose by 80 kobo to close at N9.20 per share, Lafarge Africa increased by 70 kobo to end at N14.70 per unit, while Custodian Investment appreciated by 50 kobo to settle at N5.50 per unit.
Conversely, Dangote Cement led the decliners’ table after shedding N2.10 to close at N145.80 per share. Unilever Nigeria followed with a price depreciation of N2.05 to close at N19.60 per unit, with CAP going down by N1.25 to close at N24.30 per unit. MTN Nigeria went down by N1 to finish at N122 per share, while International Breweries declined by 85 kobo to end at N9.40 per share.
The activity level was mixed last Friday as the volume of shares transacted by investors went down by 40.45 percent to 432.5 million units from 726.2 million units, while the value increased by 87.95 percent to N5.6 billion from N3.0 billion.
Zenith Bank was the most active stock at the market, closing with a turnover of 127.3 million shares sold for N2.2 billion, while Access Bank followed with 71.1 million units worth N633.0 million.
UBA traded 59.0 million shares valued at N385.1 million, Sterling Bank exchanged 45.5 million equities worth N100.0 million, while CAP transacted 36.6 million shares valued at N889.8 million.
