By Dipo Olowookere
Gains recorded by stocks in the consumer goods and oil/gas sectors supported the 0.18 percent growth posted on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday.
The equity market had opened the first trading day of the week bearish on Monday, but shares in the two sectors ensured that selloffs experienced in the banking, insurance and industrial goods sectors did not have much impact on the overall market performance.
At the close of transactions, the All-Share Index (ASI) appreciated by 48.35 points to settle at 26,739.44 points, while the market capitalisation increased by N23.3 billion to remain at the N12 trillion region. The market cap finished yesterday at N12.906 trillion against N12.883 trillion on Monday.
Business Post reports that the level of activity improved on Tuesday, with the volume of shares rising by 28.05 percent to 394.4 million units from 308.0 million units and the value of traded stocks growing by 157.80 percent to N6.5 billion from N2.5 billion.
There were huge activities around UAC Nigeria at the market on Tuesday. Investors traded 117.7 million units of the company’s shares worth N827.0 million.
FBN Holdings exchanged 47.8 million shares worth N323.9 million, Access Bank traded 40.3 million equities valued at N391.8 million, Zenith Bank transacted 21.0 million stocks for N390.7 million, while UBA sold 20.2 million shares valued at N144.5 million.
On the price movement chart, Conoil emerged as the highest price gainer, rising by N1.50 to close at N16.90 per unit, while MTN Nigeria trailed with a price appreciation of 90 kobo to finish at N121.90 per share.
Forte Oil gained 70 kobo to settle at N16.60 per share, Nigerian Breweries rose by 50 kobo to close at N49 per unit, while Ekocorp increased its share value by 37 kobo to end at N4.07 per unit.
At the other side, Lafarge Africa suffered the highest price loss after going down by 25 kobo to settle at N14.65 per unit, while Zenith Bank followed with a decline of 20 kobo to close at N18.50 per share.
United Capital depreciated by 12 kobo to finish at N2.18 per share, while Ecobank and Africa Prudential lost 10 kobo each to trade at N6.90 and N4.20 per share respectively.
