By Dipo Olowookere
After suffering losses for the first two trading sessions of this week, equities in the local market rebounded at the midweek session by 0.23 per cent, thanks to bargain hunters.
The renewed buying interest in the local stocks increased the market capitalisation of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) yesterday by N50 billion to N21.525 trillion from N21.475 trillion and lifted the All-Share Index (ASI) by 96.09 points to 41,147.72 points from 41,051.63 points.
The level of activity was mixed as a total of 649.6 million shares worth N4.6 billion were traded in 6,296 deals on Wednesday in contrast to the 525.0 million equities worth N5.3 billion transacted in 5,965 deals on Tuesday. This showed that only the trading value reduced (by 13.59 per cent) as the trading volume rose by 23.74 per cent and the number of deals increased by 5.55 per cent.
Mutual Benefits Assurance was the most traded stock yesterday with the sale of 52.1 million shares valued at N28.7 million, while Transcorp followed with 51.7 million equities valued at N66.1 million.
Sterling Bank exchanged 48.1 million stocks for N94.3 million, Lafarge Africa traded 34.7 million equities worth N900.1 million, while UPDC sold 30.7 million shares worth N23.0 million.
On the price movement chart, Lafarge Africa emerged the biggest price gainer, appreciating by N2 to close at N26.50 per share, Ardova grew by N1.75 to end at N19.75 per unit, BOC Gases improved by N1.35 to sell for N15.12 per unit, Northern Nigerian Flour Mills grew by 80 kobo to N8.80 per share, while CAP gained 50 kobo to trade at N20.50 per share.
On the losers’ table, GTBank occupied the top spot with a decline of 70 kobo to settle at N33.05 per share, Axa Mansard dropped 17 kobo to close at N1.53 per unit, Japaul fell by 12 kobo to N1.16 per share, Cutix declined by 12 kobo to quote at N2.06 per unit, while Dangote Cement lost 10 kobo to finish at N234.50 per share.
Adedapo Adesanya