By Dipo Olowookere
For the first time in a while, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) appreciated for two straight sessions, rising by 0.58 per cent on Thursday after a 0.98 per cent growth on Wednesday.
Sustained bargain hunting in large-cap equities like Access Bank, Stanbic IBTC, MTN Nigeria and others contributed to the increase witnessed yesterday.
At the close of transactions, the insurance, banking and industrial goods sectors rose by 0.81 per cent, 0.60 per cent and 0.07 per cent apiece, while the consumer goods and energy counters depreciated by 0.24 per cent and 0.05 per cent respectively.
For the All-Share Index (ASI), it went up by 207.36 points to 39,293.14 points from 39,085.78 points, while the market capitalisation increased by N108 billion to N20.558 trillion from N20.450 trillion.
The shares of Coronation Insurance (Wapic) improved by 10.00 per cent on Thursday to 55 kobo, while UPDC REIT rose by 9.80 per cent to N5.60.
Furthermore, Pharma Deko grew by 9.63 per cent to N1.48, Neimeth gained 9.55 per cent to trade at N1.95, while GlaxoSmithKline appreciated by 9.45 per cent to N6.95.
On the losers’ chart, Sovereign Trust Insurance was on top with a price depreciation of 8.33 per cent to settle at 22 kobo and was trailed by NPF Microfinance Bank, which lost 7.22 per cent to close at N1.80.
Prestige Assurance declined by 6.82 per cent to 41 kobo, Japaul went down by 4.44 per cent to 43 kobo, while Dangote Sugar dropped 2.67 per cent to trade at N16.40.
Unlike the preceding day, the level of activity waned yesterday with 229.4 million stocks worth N3.8 billion traded in 4,016 deals compared with the 361.9 million shares valued at N5.7 billion transacted in 4,018 deals a day earlier.
This indicated that the volume of shares transacted by investors during the session reduced by 36.61 per cent, the value went down by 33.69 per cent and the number of deals dropped 0.05 per cent.
Union Bank continued to dominate the activity chart as it further closed as the most active with the sale of 79.6 million units valued at N421.7 million.
GTBank exchanged 19.3 million stocks for N599.0 million, Zenith Bank transacted 12.1 million equities worth N265.9 million, MTN Nigeria traded 10.1 million stocks for N1.6 billion, while Oando transacted 9.5 million shares worth N31.3 million.
