By Dipo Olowookere
The bulls were brought back to Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday to provide succour to the market participants, thanks to BUA Cement and 18 other stocks.
For five straight sessions, investors were subjected to the pains brought by the bears, but these 19 stocks intervened, leaving the market rising by 0.17 percent at the close of business yesterday.
This increased the All-Share Index (ASI) by 45.83 points to 27,568.91 points from 27,523.08 points, and the market capitalisation by N24 billion to N14.362 trillion from N14.338 trillion.
The key gains came from the industrial goods sector, which improved by 1.66 percent and from the insurance space, which appreciated by 1.30 percent. The banking still remained depressed by 0.51 percent, the energy sector fell by 0.86 percent, while the consumer goods counter declined by 0.04 percent.
Business Post reports that BUA Cement was the highest price gainer during the session, appreciating by N1.05 to sell at N36.05 per unit, while C&I Leasing rose by 50 kobo to trade at N6.85 per share.
United Capital further improved yesterday by 32 kobo to N3.54 per unit, Africa Prudential rose by 13 kobo to quote at N5.25 per share, while Ikeja Hotel gained 11 kobo to trade at N1.21 per unit.
At the other end, SFS REIT led the losers’ chart with a price depreciation of N8.55 to close at N76.95 per share, while GTBank maintained its free fall with a loss of 40 kobo to settle at N28 per unit.
Oando went down by 23 kobo to N3.26 per share, Zenith Bank fell by 10 kobo to N19.40 per unit, while Champion Breweries declined by 9 kobo to sell at 88 kobo each.
The activity chart was mixed during the session as market participants exchanged 485.0 million shares worth N3.6 billion in 4,187 deals compared with the 290.2 million equities worth N5.0 billion exchanged the previous session in 3,528 deals.
This indicated that the volume of shares traded by investors increased by 67.15 percent, while the number of deals grew by and 18.68 percent, with the value of transactions reducing by 28.56 percent.
Sovereign Trust Insurance was the most traded stock at the market on Thursday. The insurance firm sold 200 million units of its shares worth N40.0 million.
GTBank exchanged 56.3 million equities for N1.6 billion, Zenith Bank transacted 36.7 million valued at N713.9 million, UBA sold 32.4 million stocks worth N247.5 million, while FBN Holdings traded 31.2 million equities valued at N179.4 million.
